Collegetimes Creep of the Week: Taking Facebook creeping one step too far

We’re all familiar with the idea of Facebook creeping… I’ll be the first to admit I’m pretty much a pro, but this is beyond disturbing.

Every week, Collegetimes.com have been searching through Facebook for who they deem as the ‘hottest’ Irish student that week, they’ve then taken a selection of their profile pictures (anything from 6-15 pictures) and posted them on their website for all to view (and perv on).

I find this really disturbing.

First of all, this is essentially a crass version of an online freak show. They’re placing these young people in a dangerous situation in which genuine perverts could potentially find them and stalk them in real life.

They have given their full names and a large selection of their profile pictures, making them easy to track down when dangerous people may not have come across them (as Facebook normally only suggests you add people who have mutual friends.

It’s difficult to find complete strangers, and putting all the attractive ones on a single website is just heaven for sex offenders and potential stalkers.

Also, Collegetimes are playing up to the sad societal norm of objectifying young people (boys and girls alike), by placing them non-consensually on a podium and saying “look at these pretty people and judge them!”

Everyone has things they like and dislike about themselves, and just because these people are beautiful doesn’t change the fact that this is exploitation.

It’s okay to admire someone’s beauty, but sharing a non-consenting stranger’s personal photographs (even if they are on a public forum) to potentially thousands of other strangers is really not okay.

Yes, Facebook profile pictures are in the public domain, however by law the person who takes the picture owns the right to the pictures.

Ooh, pick me please.

They make this seem like all fun and games with the caption “Every week, a little spy from Collegetimes.ie trawls through the wonderful world of Facebook and selects the most attractive Irish students possible. Nothing is taken that isn’t there to be seen so you might want to update your privacy settings because you could be next week’s CT Creep Of The Week…” but this is definitely too far.

Also, using the petty justification that we should hide more of our Facebook content isn’t an excuse – the same way if you see a woman on the street wearing a low cut top, you don’t have the right to take a picture of their boobs and show it to your mates.

Profile pictures are for short time viewing, to identify the person who could potentially be your friend but happens to have the same name as 10 other different people (a common occurrence in Ireland- Miss Mary O’Something), not to copy and share with potentially millions of people.

We shouldn’t be hiding our online existence, it’s Collegetimes’ responsibility to not Facebook stalk and publish their findings to millions of people who would’ve never seen these profile pictures in the first place.

There is a difference between Facebook creeping someone privately (for research purposes only of course) and publishing their photographs across the internet for all to see and judge and quite frankly, I’m disgusted they think this is remotely acceptable behaviour.

Is this a creep too far or just harmless fun? Let us know what you think in the comments or tweet us your thoughts @TheTabBelfast