Parents have an important role to not only teach but support children when they get into trouble

Mereseini Vuniwaqa, the Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, says a Dropbox containing 900 images of nude young Fijian women should be condemned.

It ‘is wrong on so many levels’.

She says it is of ‘great concern because it points yet again to the need to strengthen parental responsibility’.

She has touched on a very important issue of the responsibility of parents. Those 900 unsuspecting young women have parents who are probably unaware of the existence of the Dropbox.

The Dropbox can be used by sexual predators who prey on young women, some innocent, for their own self-gratification.

It is even more disconcerting that 900 images of minors,

(girls Under-18) feature in another Dropbox.

The folder was removed yesterday after the Fiji

Sun published a report about the nude pictures which were shared in the

Dropbox file sharing site.

Some of the victims are so young that it is morally wrong and criminal to be using their images for titillation and entertainment.

The people who do this are mentally sick and must be hunted down and brought to justice.

This saga highlights two things:

1) The naivety of these girls. It’s obvious they are unaware that their images are being posted. They innocently posed for a photographer or took their own selfies. Someone had come along and posted the images in the Dropbox. By the time the young women realised it, it was too late. What is unclear is in what circumstances were the images taken and posted. Most of the young women in the first folder were apparently from the University of the South Pacific and the Fiji National University. In the second one the young women seemed a lot younger than the first group. Students are known to hold their own parties in the campus. What goes on in there no one knows except for those who attend. In the second group, there is a normal photo of this young woman with a young man. The next one shows the young woman alone fully nude.

2) If the parents are ashamed and angry, they have every reason to be. But they should not take it out on their children who have been innocently dragged into this incident.

But it underscores the role of parents in raising their children. Some may argue that they did not teach their children to get involved in immoral behavior. They have taught them good values but the children have rebelled. Others may be regretting that they have failed to teach their children correct principles. Whatever camp we belong to, this is no time to condemn the young women. They need all the love and understanding they can get from their families.

The young women need to know of the risks involved in taking explicit personal photos and videos. Ms Vuniwaqa says the victims must not be ashamed this is a breach of trust and is indicative of the misuse of social media.

It’s a wakeup call for everyone. We cannot be lackadaisical in the way we take and distribute images. When we fail to take the necessary precautions we do so at our own peril.

If the parents are ashamed and angry, they have every reason to be. But they should not take it out on their children who have been innocently dragged into this incident.