MySpace, Naked Photos, and a Dumped Teenager: A Cautionary Tale

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:36:00 GMT

The plight of Alex Phillips offers a good lesson in how NOT to respond to a break-up. The 17-year-old Wisconsin teen (pictured) faces up to 16 years in prison for publishing naked photos of his ex-girlfriend on his MySpace page. If this sounds like the doings of a puritanical, punishment-happy society, wait till you learn a bit more about this lovely Alex character.

After Alex “dated” (which is probably a very tame way to put it) a 16-year-old girl for a while, they broke up and she started seeing someone else. Alex decided to teach his ex a little lesson about who she was dealing with—and about being a bit more cautious when she emailed photos in the future. He allegedly pasted on his MySpace page two nude photos that the girl had emailed to him during happier times. Suffice it to say that, according to the police report, one of the photos was a close-up that was not of the girl’s face.

Under this photo, Alex eloquently described his broken heart this way: “Yo tell me this bitch desurves this!!!!!....TF gets my leftovers….” I’ve included the ellipses to indicate references to the girl’s anatomy (or, more specifically, to what Alex did to said anatomy) that are best left to the imagination.

Unfortunately for Al, he took a similarly aggressive stance when police phoned him and asked him to remove the photos. “Fuck that,” he reportedly said. “I’m keeping them up.” Once he was brought in to custody and charged with child porn, defamation, and sexual exploitation of a minor, Alex conceded that he was simply “venting,” but he “probably should not have done this.” The girl told police she was “very upset.”

In a best case scenario, boys such as Alex Phillips would have some really good therapy for years before they were allowed any more contact with women. And 16-year-old girls would not email photos of their anatomy to boys like Alex. And teenage boys would not call girls bitches, and would know how to spell the word “deserve.” Considering that this is clearly not a “best-case scenario” world, what do you think of Alex Phillips: vicious pervert deserving of criminal prosecution or confused teenager who simply took these things a bit too far?

Photo: The Smoking Gun

Strollerderby : ex-girlfriend

MySpace, Naked Photos, and a Dumped Teenager: A Cautionary Tale