Teens mixed on picture scandal

Stephen Flanagan visited Glanmire to find out what students thought of the picture circulation.

THERE was a crowd a of teenagers gathered outside the petrol station in Glanmire in Cork at lunchtime yesterday. They were about 16 or 17, and they meet there every school day to get something to eat or have a furtive cigarette. And of course, to talk.

Yesterday, conversation centred on just one topic.

None of 15 or so teens was willing to have their picture taken, or to let their name appear in print.

But they were animated in expressing their opinions on the story of the girl who was photographed by a camera phone in a compromising position.

"It's her own fault for letting her picture be taken," said one girl, and that seemed to be the general consensus. If she had never let her photograph be taken in the first place, everything would be fine.

What about whoever sent the pictures on to others?

"Well, obviously, whoever did it was a bastard," said one boy, and then the rumour mill cranked up.

The girl had left her phone in the school changing room and someone had used it to send on the pictures to their friends. Or she had lost it on the street and a total stranger had found it and stolen the pictures. Or she had dumped her boyfriend, and in a fit of rage he had forwarded the images to his friends.

There were mixed opinions on whether parents should be allowed view the contents of their children's phones. Some thought that their phone was private, end of conversation. One 18-year-old said that if the parents had bought the phone, they were entitled to see what was in it. He had bought his own phone, and it was private.

Age, they thought, had a lot to do with it children who were 16 or 17 should be trusted to be responsible.

The group didn't know who the girl was. And although she may be attending one of the two schools in Glanmire, it seemed as if they were talking about someone distant and unconnected to them.

But not all the time. "I feel sorry for her," said one girl. She added quietly: "It just goes to show you can't trust anybody."