Model nude for fast cash today and you simply move your money problems into the future. Beware of this career limiting move.
But that’s no reason to limit your earnings prospects later in life. The risk that the wrong people will discover your naked photos or videos is skyrocketing due to a confluence of trends.
Who’s Looking for You
One risk to become wise to: It’s almost become a standard practice of human resources departments and recruiters to outsource background checks to companies that do them full time.
While these outfits generally focus on fact-checking the claims people make on their resumes — along with reference checks, and digging up any criminal records — the depth and magnitude of the background checks vary depending on a host of factors.
Although it’s not likely these firms look into whether candidates have sold naked photos online, one might assume that higher-paying jobs might involve more elaborate background checks.
Image Search
Another phenomenon that would make internet nudity a career limiting move is the increased sophistication of image-based search technology.
Visual search capabilities can match images to their source and vice versa; this functionality is an option in most search engines, along with numerous photo sharing websites and tools.
The facial recognition capabilities in this technology have gotten so sophisticated that wigs and aliases are no longer able to help models and performers evade detection.
Other Factors
And unfortunately for these models and performers, image search tools aren’t the only thing that’s making it easier to discover them. Illegal file sharing of this type of content continues to proliferate in spite of copyrights, watermarking technology, and even paywalls.
To be fair, it’s possible that the large volume of content on the internet might slow down or reduce the odds that someone might discover an adult entertainment-type of photo or video from a person’s past.
However, computing power continues to improve so it’s very possible that something that takes too long to find today might be much easier to find in the near future.
The potential lost opportunities resulting from such a discovery far exceeds the amount of debt relief you might achieve today by selling some illicit photos or videos online.
Readers, do you feel desperate to eliminate your debt?
Jackie Cohen is an award winning financial journalist turned turned financial advisor obsessed with climate change risk, data and business. Jackie holds a B.A. Degree from Macalester College and an M.A. in English from Claremont Graduate University.