I don’t want this to sound preachy, so I am just going to say it like it is. If you send someone your nudes, there isn’t much holding them back from showing other people, or really even showing the entire world via the internet. We all know one poor girl or boy from high school who had their nudes spread around.

That might not even scare you, but what if I told you it could be worse than just a little bit of embarrassment? What if one day, years after you sent a nude to your college sweetheart, you are sitting in your executives’ office with all your glory, when you get an email and attached is a picture of your naked self from someone you may not even know with a message saying, “If you don’t give me <blank>, I am going to send this to everyone in your firm.” Yep, it’s just that easy to get blackmailed, and not all states in the US have laws against this sort of threat. The ones that do aren’t too sure what to do when this does happens.

However, there are a some ways to avoid this from happening to you. The best route, of course, is to not send nudes in the first place. That sounds easy for someone who hasn’t done it before, but for those that enjoy posing in front of the camera for their lover, this would be taking something away from them. So, what are some other ways you can be a little bit safer when sending “private” photos?

One way is to never, ever use the internet for such purposes. A person can easily hack into any of your social media accounts and hide behind the mask that is the internet, with little chance of authorities catching them. Especially considering half of these said hackers are out of country. This isn’t to say that if an online hacker is blackmailing you that you shouldn’t report them, because there is a chance that they would be able to track them down, but it’s better to be safe than sorry and not give these internet hooligans a chance to nab your photos in the first place.

Another trick would be to not show your face in such images. If your face isn’t in the picture, there isn’t much proof that the picture is actually of you.

Besides not showing your face and not using the internet to send explicit pictures, there aren’t many other ways to protect yourself from having your naughty pictures used against you if you are to send them to another person. It’s a sticky situation, sextortion is, and all too real in today’s society. Keep that in mind as you live your wild, college-age life kiddos.