DIY Porn
Everyone's their own porn  producer / director / cameraman / lead actress these days.

The stories vary.

One story is of girl who gets her dead computer fixed and her files retrieved, which includes racy photos taken at a particular kinky moment between her and her lover. It's Jackpot Day for the pervy computer technicians, who not only view the photos, they put them up on the Web. She becomes a momentary object of fascination and fantasy.

Ditto, a girl who loses her cell phone that has the naked pics she took to MMS to her long-distance boyfriend. The bastard who gets her phone MMS's her photos to his friends and everyone on her contact list.

Another story is of a girl and her boyfriend. They break up. He wants revenge. So he releases their sex videos to their common friends.

The degrees of separation of the girls involved has significantly decreased in the last year. From last year's overheard conversation at a restaurant, to a friend of an acquaintance, to a friend of a friend, to a girl who sometimes parties at my place. It's becoming a regular story -- just another story of a girl who inadvertently became a porn star.

On one hand, I'm all for people being able to make their own porn. With video-enabled cellphones becoming more and more affordable, being one's own porn producer / director / cameraman / lead actress is becoming more and more possible, Besides, if taking a video during sex makes it more exciting, yay! I'm all for better sex for everyone.

And that ambitious little Bolshevik in my head hopes that this would be key in toppling huge Porn Corporations. Who would want porn films of people that are so hard to relate to when you can watch yourself? I know, the Bolshevik is realistic enough to know that's a pipe dream. But it's a nice dream.

What bugs me though is how these private photos and videos are distributed. Often, it's without the consent of the female subject. Her privacy is violated and more often than not, there's a fair bit amount of shame  and blame thrown her way. It's like she's being punished for having great sex.

I reckon there should be a way to avoid all that hassle without giving up all that fun. It would be wonderful if the world doesn't have any malicious lovers or pervy computer technicians. Good luck waiting for that to happen.

And since I'm a nerd, I think the solution has to do with how to use tech securely in your DIY porn:

• After taking a photo or video on your mobile phone, move the file somewhere else (like a portable hard drive or your computer) and delete it from your phone.
• If you're using your computer to store your sexy photos and pics, remember to encrypt your directories. Use something like TrueCrypt.
• When deleting your photos and videos from your computer, make sure it's properly deleted and no traces of it remains. Erase it.
• Keep one copy of your photos and videos. Multiple copies are harder to monitor.
  
• Store your photos in an offline device that only you have access to. Burn them on a CD or DVD and keep it in a place where you store your weed and other illegal substances.

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