Creep what you sow: Collegetimes ‘Creep of the Week’ feature slammed as ‘sexist’

• Site republishes images of  ‘students’ lifted from their Facebooks
• Of the 53 people featured, only 8 are men – one of the girls was just 17
• Rugby star Dave Kearney lambasts “invasion” of his privacy

A popular Irish student site has been branded “creepy” and “sexist” for a “Creep of the Week” feature which publishes students’ Facebook photos without their permission.

Collegetimes hunts down good-looking students and posts their photos on its site for readers to drool over – often without telling them.

The tagline for the feature boasts “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 weeks [sic] CT Creep Of The Week…”

Chloe McHugh was featured on the site without her knowledge or permission

As the pictures are all publicly available, accusations of invasion of privacy are unfounded – however many of those featured still feel there’s cause for concern.

Personal information, such as school, college, birthday and recently added friends are often included, and the stealthy site even features a 17-year-old girl’s photos without her consent.

The Tab contacted Lauren Bejaoui and Chloe McHugh, who were both featured in 2013. Both Lauren and Chloe were featured on the site without their permission, and only found out through friends that they were Collegetimes’ current Creep of the Week.

Chloe claims she has no links with any colleges

Lauren found out through her boyfriend. She said “I was never contacted. I think they just trawl the internet so I presumed that’s how they found me.”

Some Creep of the Week posts also include pages liked and even recently added friends…

Chloe told The Tab: “I didn’t go to college, so I don’t know why I’d be on a Collegetimes website. I’ve no link with any colleges so I don’t know why I’d be featured.”

When we asked Lauren which university she studied at, she said “I was and am still at secondary school”. She was in fact only 17 when Collegetimes plastered her Facebook photos on the site.

Neither of the girls contacted Collegetimes and neither found out exactly who wrote the articles, how they discovered their photos or why they were chosen.

Of the 53 people featured so far on COTW only 8 are male. When we asked some of the people featured whether they thought the unfair imbalance was sexist there was a mixed response.

Kelsey Flood, another girl featured on the site despite not being a student, says “I don’t think it’s sexist. I just think girls are more interesting to look at, and we’re also inclined to post more pictures online, whether it’s selfies or modelling photos.”

Chloe disagreed though, telling us “They only recently started featuring guys. I think it is a bit sexist.”

Many have accused the COTW feature of being an invasion of privacy. However, some have argued that the culture of Facebook ‘creeping’ is so widespread that the feature is harmless, and comes with the territory of allowing your privacy settings on Facebook to have your photos publicly accessible.

Lauren told us “Naturally that’s going to change depending on the person but for me I feel it’s harmless fun. This is the thing with the internet, once you upload something it’s there for everyone to see unless you’re anal about security settings. I mean there really is no such thing as privacy on the internet.”

Chrissy Mangan, another girl featured Creep of the Week, suggested the website had to be taken lightly. She said “Like, the lads would slag me over it, but it’s not a big deal. It’s a stupid website and it means nothing being Creep of the Week.”

Chrissy, a law student at Trinity, told us “I think there’s no harm to it. Like it’s a legit page, and the crowd who runs it are nice, so there’s no dark hidden agenda. It literally is what it says it is. I went into the offices like two days after I was picked and had a laugh with them about it.”

But not everyone is convinced. Collegetimes has already been involved in controversy over their Creep of the Week feature.

It has been described as “distasteful and invasive“, and the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has urged students to check their Facebook settings “to combat such an invasion of privacy”.

They were also forced to pull an article on one-night-stands in 2013 which encouraged men to “prey” on drunk women who preferably have “low self-esteem and potential daddy issues” in order to have sex.

Also bizarrely included among the few guys on the Creep of the Week feature is Ireland rugby union star Dave Kearney.

When The Tab contacted Dave Kearney’s representatives to ask them about the feature they confirmed that he had not been asked permission and had no idea his Facebook photos, which appeared to be “a selection of his private Facebook images” had been ‘creeped’ on by Collegetimes.

Dave Kearney ran in two tries on his Ireland debut against Samoa…but could not evade the attention of Collegetimes

Kearney’s management told us “No he was not aware, he certainly did not give permission and as his management company, we would not be happy with this invasion of privacy!”

Greta Dunne, from Collegetimes, said “If you’d like to pass on the names of the girls who believe the feature is sexist and creepy, I would be happy to remove them from the site.”