With the joy of graduation ceremonies in the air, many students are stepping out into a new world of opportunities, but for three Texas Southern University students, their “new world” might be behind bars.
On Friday, May 13, three male TSU students were arrested for the release of a sex tape that was placed on YouTube during the early morning hours of Wednesday, May 11. The now infamous TSU sex tape was soon shared throughout social media networks to become a trending topic on Twitter.
The sex tape showed a young TSU co-ed engaging in what appeared to be consensual sex with two TSU male cohorts, while a third male student filmed the act with his cell phone, laughed and provided commentary.
The original YouTube post was listed as “College Life Resurrected” and bore a tagline of “Anyone who snitches on this video is a B**** A** N****.” Texas Southern University has not released the students’ names as of late Friday, but has released a statement that confirms the arrests and the investigation into the sex-tape scandal.
As we have seen with Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian and Montana Fishburn, to name a few, sex tapes have become an increasingly popular means to celebrity status and rapid notoriety, but, in this age of technology, cell phones and social media outlets that are meant to be outlets of networking and entertainment have begun to threaten the general public by catching them in unflattering situations.
The question of civilian privacy laws an
d voyeurism must be posed sooner or later, or there will continue to be more cases like the Rutgers University freshmen, Tyler Clementi, who jumped off New Jersey’s George Washington Bridge on September 22. Unknowingly, he was filmed on webcam by his roommate while engaging in a sexual act. The video was later released via social media, and the roommate faces prison time.
As the age-old saying goes, “sex sells.” But selling or sharing the privacy of others at their expense to be viewed via the World Wide Web is agelessly distasteful. –alex green
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