items from the mind of an idiot savant

not fit for print

Let’s face it, the modern American youth gets exploited enough in today’s online world. There is no shortage of suggestive photos of underage girls on the net, and Playboy isn’t helping.

I don’t mean this in a pious way that looking at photos of nude women is inappropriate, because I don’t believe that. I don’t even mean it in the way that Playboy sets a bad example for young girls. I mean it in more round about way. Here’s the deal.

Playboy recently did a search for the hottest women on MySpace.com. You can read the official press release here. I admit it, these women are attractive and probably deserve the title. See for yourself.

Here are the winners.

Jessica Difeo (Huntington Beach, CA)
Heather Lutz (Reading, PA)
Carrie Vaughn (Huntington Beach, CA)
Brittany Fuchs (Annandale, VA)[how do you pronounce that last name?]
Jeska Vardinski (Fullerton, CA)
Ana Georgean (Chicago, IL) [I couldn't find her MySpace page.]
Chantal Alexandria (Los Angeles, CA)
Heather Lynn (Davenport, IA)
Betty Lipstick (San Francisco, CA)

I would like to point out that Playboy did not do anything illegal and complied fully with all required laws. They state in their press release “The women were selected via an online casting call on Playboy.com. Those who were interested in posing were required to send in a signed model release, a photographer’s release and legible copies of two valid IDs to confirm their age. As with all Playboy castings, the pictorial was open only to women who are 18 or older.”

Here’s my point. Do a search for each of these names on MySpace. You’ll find that for 5 of the 9 names(more than half) return results with under age girls.

Searching for “Carrie Vaughn” returned the profiles for 1 girl under the age of 18 and several adult women including the actual winner.
Searching for “Brittany Fuchs” returned the profiles for 1 girl under the age of 18 and several adult women including the actual winner.
Searching for “Heather Lutz” returned the profiles for 6 girls under the age of 18 and several adult women including the actual winner.

So far, no big deal right? Additionally, only an idiot is going to confuse those young innocent girls with the actuall winners who posed in the magazine.

But what if you search for “Ana Georgean” or “Heather Lyn”?

Searching for “Heather Lyn” returned the profiles for 89 girls under the age of 18.
And searching for “Ana Georgean” returned the profile for 1 girl age 15 and NOBODY ELSE.

I’m sure some of these 98 girls will receive an inappropriate IM or email as a result of misdirected celebrity. They’ll also get a sudden influx of friend requests.

Here’s my point if haven’t caught on yet. Playboy didn’t do it’s due diligence to protect these girls. They could have held the names back in any press releases, and only made names available with links in print and online mediums. It isn’t anything new for Playboy to divulge the names of it’s models, but this is a bit different, and only because they reference MySpace.com and only because of some recent unpleasant events relating to under age girls and MySpace.

While I’m a bit upset by their irresponsibility, I’m shocked that this is coming from Playboy. They’ve always been one of the forerunners in bridging old media with new media. They’ve displayed an understanding how new technology works, and what the benefits of and consequences of their use are.

I’m not calling for a boycott of the magazine or anything silly like that. After all, it is art. Some other groups will probably call for boycott. I just want a public apology. I want for Playboy and other industries in general to learn from this so we can be more aware as a society and be better prepared on how to handle it. Hopefully we won’t need some sort of legislation, but instead will just learn to be better citizens/netizens.