While social networking sites are places where people can post photos of trips, dances, and friends, they are also places where people can post explicit photos of one another. Many teens don’t give a second thought to posting things online, but once a photo hits the Internet, it can stay there forever. You may not get into your dream school or even have a job because of photos that you posted when you were a teenager. The fact is, photos and even statements that are posted online can haunt you.

Though there may be many factors affecting what gets online, teens should take responsibility for what they post online and learn to accept the negative consequences of what they post. If you’re afraid something you post will backfire, then don’t post it.

Heaven and Hell, Snowballz, Springballz, and Pattycakes are all dances hosted by students from South and Southwest. Springballz had two photographers that took explicit photos of students at the dance and then posted them online. They were posted on Facebook, but some of the photos were taken down after a few hours.

Junior Leah Crawford said she was “disgusted, really grossed out” after seeing the photos on Facebook. Alex Benson, another junior who attended the dance, said “I was in shock.”

Senior Isaiah Garry hosted Pattycakes and Heaven and Hell, but he didn’t have photographers at either dance parties because, “I didn’t want to spend the money.” He also felt like it was disrespectful and the only point of posting photos like these are to slander people.

Although photos like the ones from Springballz were used as slander against others, it is also the responsibility of the person in the photo to be aware of what is happening around them, since the dance was in a public facility and people were aware that photographers were going to be present at the dance.

Sharing photos is a big part of our society, which is why social networking has become such a large part of our culture. However, people need to understand that photos, once put on the Internet, will always stay on the Internet, even if you take them down. Once something is made public and others have access to it, it is nearly impossible to completely remove evidence of what you posted.

Posting inappropriate photos can alert many colleges and jobs about what their prospective students and employees do in their free time. They can look at your Facebook profile, Twitter, and Instagram, and consequently will draw conclusions about what you’re like as a person.

If students took the time to think about what they post and the effects that they might have on them in the future, social networking wouldn’t be as harmful to others. Anyone can see those photos and some photos shouldn’t be posted. Although Crawford and Benson don’t think that their futures will be affected by photos of them online, they know that inappropriate photos can have repercussions and people should think about others before posting photos that are explicit to the public.

We have seen on television that many celebrities have had problems with racy photos being leaked to the public, and those can affect their entire careers by both ruining their reputation and closing the opportunity for many future acting jobs. Inappropriate photos and their leakage has also caused many political figures to lose their jobs, and they have had to work very hard to gain their public image back.

Even though it’s on a much smaller scale, the same thing can happen to the average teenager. The one thing that celebrities, politicians, and teenagers have in common is that they are all responsible for what gets put on the internet.

Social networking has caused many problems in today’s society, but it is also a great way for people to share what they are doing; people just need to be precautious of what they post online because there are consequences and it does affect others.