Opinion Australia

It’s possible some of you might never have heard of singer Billy Ray Cyrus, but I’ll bet there are a lot fewer of you who’ve never heard of his daughter Miley who has been making a name of her own with her alter ego as “Hannah Montana” especially if you have kids around you!

Over the months, fifteen year old Miley has had her share of controversy. Her ‘image’ has been a traditional Disney ‘wholesomeness’ but someone has slowly been leaking pictures of her onto the internet showing her in various states of dress (and undress) and in poses which have done her image no good at all.

I’m not reproducing them here because there are enough images out there of her if you want to look but I *am* reproducing the photo of the guy who’s been accused of ‘leaking’ them!

Josh Holly aka 'trainreq'

This guy is eighteen year old Josh Holly, who also describes himself as a hacker and runs a blog where his pseudonym is ‘trainreq’. According to Josh, who lives in Murfreesboro, Tenn, USA, he ‘hacked’ into Miley’s phone, read her personal mail and downloaded photos she’d taken of herself (on her own phone).

Now I don’t know about you but I think this is absolutely disgusting behaviour! Whatever else she is or isn’t, Miley is a young girl who has as much right to her privacy as anyone else… maybe more so bearing in mind her age and career… and people like this wannabe really need to be slapped back into line. I sincerely hope the full weight of the law descends on him like a ton of bricks.

Taking this sort of photo of yourself is something millions of kids do now, after all it’s so easy to do and it’s fun to do these ‘sexy’ poses for a laugh. Naturally, most images are simply deleted. For the ‘less than famous’ some images might be shared amongst friends… what people of Miley’s age and situation rarely do is have them posted on the open internet for people to ogle!

In the USA and much of the world Miley, at 15, still underage and whilst none of the pictures so far published are actually obscene they are still ‘questionable’ and if Josh publishes the *nude* shots he says she’d taken of herself he could be in real trouble!

Even leaving that aside, I’m sure the USA has laws that make hacking into private phones and data theft illegal, but added to that I’d have though Billy Ray would be hot on this guy’s tail to sue him for every penny he ever earns. Then of course you have Disney itself who have millions tied up in this girls career and *they* will be less than pleased with Josh. Maybe ten years in the slammer will help explain to him that his actions weren’t quite as funny as he thought.

Ok he has had his own 5 minutes of fame… but now it’s time he learns what happens to people who breach other peoples privacy for their own gain.

Wow… for what might be the first time ever I’m on the side of the rich and famous!