A 38-year-old gay man recently wrote Slate’s “Dear Prudence” advice column asking whether he’s morally obliged to tell a female co-worker that her barely legal 18-year-old son is appearing on an adult cam site.
In his letter, he writes:
The advice seeker added, “I want to make it clear that I’m not looking for permission to ask him out, have sex with him, be his sugar daddy, etc.” Instead, he’s worried that the young man might be “setting himself up for trouble down the road, as I know that people record webcammers and post the videos all over the internet.”
He also said that he has stopped watching the young performer as the idea of someone so young on display squicks him out a bit.
To Prudence’s credit, she finds the 38-year-old’s letter a bit squicky too and tells him to keep his trap shut because voicing his disapproval and reservations won’t help anyone.
Indeed, as well-meaning as the 38-year-old might be, his letter is a tad ageist and assumes that the young man doesn’t know how the internet works. In this day and age of widespread sexting, who hasn’t considered that their sexy times won’t resurface at some later date? Luckily, fewer and fewer people seem to care, unless you’re running for public office (and sometimes not even then).
