A certain photograph has been making the rounds of the internet recently. I'm not going to post it here to gratify the sordid appetites of Internet weirdos, though. Suffice it to say that it is said to have originated on Facebook, and depicts what looks like four female high school students in a school comfort room. All four are wearing their high school uniforms, but have pushed their blouses up and their skirts down to reveal their underwear; one of them is even wearing a thong. There is a logo on the t-shirt worn by one of them; another is wearing a school ID; the school uniform is your standard white blouse and checkered skirt with a tie. The skirt and tie are a particular shade of neon-blue-green.

Men and even teenage boys have been commenting on this photograph and passing it around on social networks and other places on the Internet since last week. Many of them express titillation and appreciation of the photograph; one said that he wanted them for his birthday, and another said that he didn't care whose children they were, since they'd posted the photo in public, they were fair game. It's none of your business what I think or do with the photo, he said. I don't have any sisters anyway.

It's appalling what minors like these do nowadays, and that people who know better would even condone and appreciate such behavior. Shall we blame media? TV? Movies? The prevalence of the Internet? Where are the parents of these children? Where are the teachers and the school administrators of the school where this photograph was taken? Why haven't they taken any action on the matter?

Perhaps these children did it for a lark, as children do who climb trees while wearing skirts. Perhaps they thought it would be fun to be "daring," the way they see others do on TV or the movies or the internet. Perhaps in the ways of teenagers, they thought it would be exciting to do something they shouldn't be doing. What harm could there be in a photograph? Indeed, what harm could there be in having your face and body become notorious across the Internet... after all, they can only look and not touch? They fail to realize that if the Internet can be anywhere, it could be in the places where they live, and could be seen by people who would recognize them. Could be seen, perhaps, by men who don't care whose children they are, or that they are in fact children, who would think that since their photograph was on the internet after all, they were fair game, and who wouldn't take no for an answer. They failed to realize that one photograph, after all, could ruin their lives, and that of their families, for good.

I wonder what the parents of these children would think if they saw their daughters' photographs? Would they be angry? Would they be sad? Or, most appalling of all, would they sit back and laugh and applaud?