Instagram Breeds Young Insta-Targets

Some of my older readers may not have heard of “Instagram” before. Instagram (IG) is an application that can be added to most of today’s more modern smart phones which allows people to share photos. These can be photos that were taken with the camera in the phone or any image that has been uploaded to the phone.

I myself have IG on my iPhone. I like the ability to share photos with friends on Twitter and Facebook as well as within the IG photo stream. My “Followers” or people who subscribe to view any photos I choose to share will see my snapshots when they use the IG application. Some people use it to share pictures of their kids with family and friends.

Personally, as a bit of a social media junkie, I enjoy using it to share small resolution samples of my nature photography, shots of myself, funny images, news photos and personal events I think my followers might be interested in. In other words, there’s nothing overly exciting and only slightly interesting. Like many of the apps I use on my iPhone, it’s a time waster or toy. It should be noted that IG has a no nudity policy although many young women push that rule as far as possible.

Obviously there’s a bit of a social factor involved as well but regardless of whether I have 3 followers or 3000, I’ll still use it from time to time until I get bored with it. However, for some people, the experience is something completely different. For some it’s about boosting low self-esteem, self-gratification and exposing themselves. That’s not always a bad thing but I’ve seen cases where it goes a bit too far with girls as young as 13 posting images of themselves in revealing clothing and most often, bikini’s.

The first thing I ask myself when I see examples of this is, “Do her parents know she’s doing this?” Many of these teenage girls are attractive and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the reason why they have not just hundreds but thousands of followers. The majority of which are boys and men.

Just for fun I did a quick search and found one 17 year old blonde girl from Florida who has at last count almost 34-thousand followers. While I’m sure she’s a very smart, happy, engaging and attractive young lady, it’s safe to assume she’s been doing this for at least a year or two and has been collecting admirers for some time. A quick glance at her photos and the overwhelming majority of them show her wearing either revealing bikinis, sports bras and tight clothing to show off her ample breasts and healthy build.

Does she have low self-esteem and is compensating by posting scantily clad images of herself in an effort to have others post comments and “Like” her images as a way to boost her self-worth? Only she knows this for sure but you can bet the thousands of horny boys and men who eagerly await her next images don’t care either way. And in this world of anonymity or detachment from reality, many people can be quite cruel in their comments. It’s easy to bully or belittle someone in today’s world when you’re hundreds or thousands of kilometres away.

A scan of some of the commentary left on her photos range from very positive reinforcement about how she looks to crass remarks about her breasts and even very negative and downright mean comments. Trust me; this is only one example of a plethora of young women posting similar images. If a woman is 18 or older and wants to engage in these activities, that is their right to do so but the same issues apply, only a parent might have less say in the matter once they become legal adults.

While posting images of her in revealing attire might increase her followers and comment numbers it can significantly decrease her safety and anonymity. Aside from the titillation of viewing these images, a deviant can gather information that may increase the odds of escalating his infatuation further than simple voyeurism. Any details on where she lives over time will help him track her down should he wish to do so.

Let’s not forget about Geo-tagging either. What is that you may wonder? Geo-tagging is very common today with a lot of phone apps. Every phone has a built in GPS which can tell you where you are when used with a mapping application. An app such as Find Friends allows you to track the mobile phone of your friend or family member in real-time provided their phones are on and Location Services are enabled. My brother and I use it for fun and I can see where he is within just a few metres. Often times I’ll find him at a restaurant like McDonald’s and I’ll send him a text message asking him “how are the fries today?” Or he could track me as I’m making my way around the golf course and figure out what hole on. It’s interesting but harmless fun.

With IG it works in a similar fashion only instead of real-time tracking, it takes a snap shot of where you are when you take and post the photo. So if you do this enough times in the same area, a criminal can have a pretty good idea where to go to improve his odds of locating you. If you always post photos from a particular beach every Saturday, then all he needs to do is stake out that beach and wait for you to show up. Scary stuff when you think of it like that.

I guess my reason for even writing about this comes from being a mature adult who is tired of seeing young women and girls preyed upon by sick, perverted, psycho pedophile bastards. Some recent Canadian court cases really pissed me off when you hear the details about how some of these creeps operate and will likely use something like Instagram as a place to get off or heaven forbid, search for their next victim. Now I realize that not every man is going to look at images like these and act on any urges they have. The same can be said that not every parent can know what their child is up to at all times but if my broaching the subject results in one parent stopping their daughter from doing this and decrease their risk of harm, it was worth the effort.

Camping Days Gone By at Presqu'ile

As another camping season has come upon us, I always have a smile on my face at this time of year because more often than not it has always been the best time of every year of my life.

Since the summer I was born (nearly 40 years ago) I have camped at Presqu'ile Provincial Park with my family. As I got older I made a point of visiting them as often as possible while they continued the tradition. The park and the camping experience played a big role in my life and some of my best memories growing up are linked to this place.

Presqu'ile has changed a lot since I was a kid and I'm sad to say, not for the better in many ways. The tree-huggers and bird lovers have forced their opinions on the park and sadly their voices were too loud to stop the parks decline as a summer playground. It is not nearly as well kept as it was in the past and the experience I had in my formative years is not nearly the same for the kids today.

There are too many examples of how the park has been let go from the disappearance of the ball diamond near the Beach Two entrance to the marsh area near the park store that used to be a beautiful lush grassy area where children played and picnics were held. Beach Four has disappeared entirely as the birdbrains lobbied for and turned it into some kind of weed and wild-grass filled nesting area for birds. I can recall a time when the beaches were so full that they had to create that fourth entrance to help with the overflow. Even then the parking lots were jammed full and visitors were forced to park on the main road and walk in. I'm not against birds, (except the Cormorants that destroyed High Bluff Island) but the daily grooming of the entire beach is long gone and the bird droppings have forced many to seek enjoyment elsewhere.

Ahhh but thank goodness I have my memories of a much better time. Of course it didn't start out that way as early on I put a scare into my family. At the age of two I wandered out of the trailer early in the morning and decided to go for a stroll. Of course I don't remember this but as the story goes my mom was terrified that I might have gone to the lake since I loved the water. Ye of little faith. Even at that age I wasn't that stupid. No, I wandered along and was eventually picked up (kicking and screaming) by a nice couple packing up early. Eventually Dad came across me with them and returned me safely to my hysterical mother and my dirty and road oily pajamas had to burnt. Wasn't I a little stinker?

There are just too many memories but here are a few more of my favourites.

I remember the day a friend of my parents brought his cotton candy machine to the park when he visited and plugged it in at the washroom. Kids from all over the park converged on him in droves.

I recall when my Grandpa and Grandma Kennedy would come out to visit. Those nights were always eagerly awaited by our friends from Pennsylvania because this meant it was poker night. Mr. Ellison would hook up a light bulb to his motor home battery so the game could go late into the night. I watched this for many years before I was finally allowed to get in on a game or two.

There was a time when a Park truck would come around the campsites and they would be fogging for mosquitoes. Of course my friends and I would hop on our bikes and blindly ride behind this thing as it drove around. I don't know what pesticides (now banned) they used back then but I can imagine I'll pay for that bit of fun at some point in my life.

Games were a big part of the time spent at the park and it seemed like gambling was involved in all of them. We'd toss quarters. This is when there are two lines drawn in the dirt road and the players would toss quarters from one line to the next and whomever was closest got all the quarters for that round. We should do that one again soon. We'd also play lawn darts for money. I think it was 25 cents for a win and 50 cents for a skunk. The other big game that our friends from the states were big into was Rummy. Hours would be spent drinking beer and playing cards. Those were fun times.

Of course as a young boy in my early and mid-teens, a lot of time was spent hanging out with friends my age like Blair Locke. With Blair and I spending so much time together it was only a matter of time before our parents became close friends as well. I think most of our time was spent chasing girls. Every now and then we got lucky and actually found some that weren't repulsed by boys. This of course led to my getting to "Second Base" for the first time and some fun nights of skinny dipping and getting chased off the beach by the park wardens.

We did plenty of other stuff as well. Riding bikes was always fun and I seem to recall we did that a lot. Mom had some glow-sticks and we'd tape them to our spokes and go riding through the campsites at night listening to everyone as they watched us go by. I can remember coming to a stop late at night and putting my foot down. Moments later I felt something brush past my leg and I looked down to see the white stripe down the back of the skunks back. I got lucky that night and most nights considering we never had lights on our bikes.

The most heroic thing I did happened when I was probably about 16 and in much better shape...back in my football days. Sitting in the trailer with Blair I saw a car coming down the road with no driver. I ran out the trailer and like a dummy I jumped in front of the car and did my best to stop if from rolling into the lake. Thanks to a little help from a woodpile at the edge of the cliff I manged to get it stopped in time. The woman had put the car in drive but forgot her toothbrush in her trailer and got out without putting the car in park...and away it went.

There have been so many great memories at the Park but I think the best memories of all are sitting around the countless number of campfires under star-filled clear summer skies with my family and friends. We'd watch for shooting stars and satellites flying overhead and just finish each day up in a perfect way.

The park has changed and many of the faces have changed over the years but the good times are still being had at my cherished summer getaway place.