Rachael Es­pinet

"Be care­ful of what you put on the in­ter­net. It will nev­er go away."

This is the cau­tion­ary tale every web user is giv­en the first time they use the com­put­er. How­ev­er, many times, for what­ev­er rea­son, im­ages or in­for­ma­tion sur­faces on the in­ter­net that por­trays peo­ple in an un­flat­ter­ing light.

As well, with the ad­vent of smart phones, which act as both a cam­era and a com­put­er, in­for­ma­tion can be spread at the speed of light with­out the vic­tim be­ing aware.

Leaked "sex tapes" are no longer a new phe­nom­e­non. Many peo­ple, some well known and some who are not, have ex­pe­ri­enced their sex­u­al en­coun­ters be­ing shared wide­ly around the web.

Lo­cal­ly, fa­mous fash­ion de­sign­ers and me­dia mem­bers were among the many vic­tims of leaked "sex tapes." And in­ter­na­tion­al­ly some celebri­ty sex tapes may have in­ad­ver­tent­ly or in­ten­tion­al­ly boost­ed ca­reers.

How­ev­er, with the con­stant ex­po­sure to so many sex­ting in­ci­dences, some young peo­ple feel pres­sured to en­gage in acts that they are not ready for, and then they get filmed. Among chil­dren and adults, leaked sex tapes and sex­ting im­ages can lead to cy­ber bul­ly­ing, "slut sham­ing," loss of jobs and in ex­treme cas­es, peo­ple com­mit sui­cide.

In 2011 two stu­dents from Fa­ti­ma Col­lege were filmed in the bath­room en­gag­ing in a sex­u­al act. That footage was lat­er up­loaded to YouTube. The video cir­cu­lat­ed around Face­book, along with a ru­mour that one of the boys com­mit­ted sui­cide. How­ev­er, the ru­mour was not true.

West In­di­an crick­eter Lendl Sim­mons is cur­rent­ly in a pri­vate law­suit with a woman with whom he used to be in­ti­mate with. The woman is su­ing him for shar­ing in­ti­mate pho­tos of them via the mo­bile apps What­sApp and Viber.

Sex­ting and sex tapes are not the on­ly prob­lems peo­ple en­counter while on­line.

For­mer Ch­aguara­mas De­vel­op­ment Au­thor­i­ty (CDA) board mem­ber Jaishi­ma Lelad­hars­ingh was re­cent­ly fired for racist state­ments he made a year ago on Face­book.

While Face­book, In­sta­gram, Twit­ter, What­sapp and Viber have be­come sta­ples in the phones of the every­day Trinida­di­an and To­bag­on­ian, new apps such as Snapchat, Tin­der and Se­cret - Speak Freely are be­com­ing more pop­u­lar.

The Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry has en­gaged in de­bates about ban­ning cam­era phones from the schools to avoid the film­ing of sex­u­al and vi­o­lent acts among stu­dents. Re­cent cam­era phone vi­ral videos showed stu­dents en­gag­ing in fights and large brawls both dur­ing and af­ter school. How­ev­er, stu­dents still en­gage in sex­ting and sex videos.

In the past, the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry has stat­ed it can­not ban cell­phones be­cause a stu­dent is en­ti­tled to their prop­er­ty. How­ev­er, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Tim Gopeesingh has man­dat­ed an in­ter-min­is­te­r­i­al team to come up with a new cell­phone pol­i­cy for schools to end il­lic­it school ground videos.