After
finishing up with my reading of chapter 8 on cyber obscenity, one story rang
clear in my mind. That story is of fallen Subway spokesperson Jared Fogle who
last month reached a plea agreement in his child pornography scandal. Jared
Fogle was charged for possessing child pornography and for crossing state lines
in order to have paid sex with minors. Fogle's plea deal would allow him to see
between five to over twelve years in prison for his crimes. Aside from his jail
time, Jared Fogle will also give money for damages to his victims.
This
much reported about story brings to light a very large issue of cyber obscenity
that is child pornography. Child pornography has become such a large issue with
trafficking of images of minors to producing and even creating digital versions
of children inappropriately on the Internet. Fogle obtained his images
from a man who was working for his Jared Foundation and instead of turning the
man into the cops, took the creepy role and kept the images for himself and eventually
acting on those desires of his that he had by then made clear.
In
this case, the term “child” is often misrepresented as many of the children involved
were near legal age to consent to sexual relations. That does not make the acts
of Jared and the man involved through the Jared Foundation any less guilty of
their acts. These images are still around and will be around to haunt the
victims for the rest of their lives. That is the main issue in my mind about
cyber obscenity is that even if the images are of people who are of-age and
even if it was consensual at the time does not mean that those people will feel
the same way in twenty years when those images and/or videos will still be in
perfect form to be replicated or sent around the Internet.
What is
the absolute worst side of this story, if there really could even be one, is
that the man who worked for the Jared Foundation obtained these obscenities by
secretly video taping the victims in his bedroom. These victims did not even
know that they were being recorded and later passed onto Jared Fogle at all.
$100,000 per victim may be a lot of money but it does not cover up any of the
immoral acts that the man and Fogle did during this entire incident.
Article link: http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/21/us/subway-jared-fogle-charges/index.html
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