Feeling “safe”

I think I’ve mentioned numerous time on this blog that I’m an avid League of Legends fan. I really enjoy following the scene, my preferred team is H2K from Europe and I make sure I watch every match they play during the regular seasons and I thoroughly enjoy watching the big tournaments, always rooting for the EU teams to get far.
I also enjoy all the faces of League, with the two Belgians being my favourite caster and interviewer/caster/doitall. These are people who worked hard to get to where they are, basically gave up their normal life at home to live in a different country and chase their dreams and make a career out of something that was deemed a very odd choice only a few years ago.

Yesterday the League of Legends scene was shook by a revelation by one of the casters that some very personal photos of his were leaked onto the internet. Now let me get one thing straight. People are allowed to make mistakes. At some point on my life I had a longer distance relationship with a guy that I sexted with and also sent one or two naughty pictures. This was a while ago and it’s something I’ve never done anymore after. This was a guy I had known for a longer time (over a year atleast), who I met in person a few times and who I trusted to not spread said pictures when our relationship eventually failed. Luckily for me he never did so my reputation never got tarnished in that way.
However, some people are malicious and will gain your trust with malicious goals in mind. I am 100% sure that this is the case right now seeing as a lot of the controversy happened over snapchat which deletes everything unless you screenshot it, and when you do the person on the other side gets notified. Some malicious person went a step further and used two phones. One to snap on, one to record said snaps. Again, this is malicious, thought out and specifically done to hurt someone. The only victim here is the caster who, next to his trust being tarnished and his persona being defiled, may actually lose his career over this. Good job random malicious girl, you ruined his life. This has been a case of catfishing in extreme form and with only one goal in mind: destruction.

A lot of people are joining the “well he shouldn’t have sent these pictures then” bandwagon. In hindsight that’s easy to say. When it doesn’t involve you that’s easy to say. It’s always easy to say when it concerns someone else. In hindsight I regretted sending some semi-nudes aswell. It’s then that I decided to not do it anymore in the future and I stuck to it, even though I have had boyfriends asking me. It’s something that I know is not safe, because you never know what happens to the pictures in the hands of someone else. It also only confirms to me that in general the internet isn’t 100% safe. It’s why I feel free enough to share with my readers that I have health issues, psychological issues and social issues… But I will never disclose exactly where I live, where I work, where I went to school etc. Because honestly, disclosing too much about yourself in an online world isn’t safe. There may always be a malicious person that can use that information to do… whatever with.

I don’t want to be all negative about the internet and it’s users. The majority are perfectly innocent. They enjoy our new age where we are a lot more online than ever and don’t use it to pursue malicious goals. It has also given people who have trouble with social interactions a “safe place” to get social anyway, without all of the awkwardness. I just want to shine a light on the uglier side of the worldwideweb and maybe give a warning aswell. Everyone is free to do what they want. If you want to send nudes to your boyfriend or girlfriend, by all means do it. If you want to talk about your work, your home, your loved ones please don’t feel like you can’t. But be aware that things online these days are forever and what consequences your personal actions might have. Even if they appear innocent.

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