Controversial X Factor contestant Josh Brookes has provided a timely example of the dangers of “s-xting,” according to a privacy expert.

“Situations where so-called celebrities encourage their fans to act in an unlawful manner also allow them to make victims out of themselves,” said Australian Privacy Foundation advisory panel member and law Professor Dan Svantesson.

The foundation has made a submission to the s-xting inquiry concerning the prosecution of young people who are caught sending, receiving and distributing s-xually explicit images.

As a result of his actions Josh Brookes risks being charged with soliciting child pornography under Commonwealth law. Svantesson told Crikey: “There is a need to bring more attention to the risks of s-xting” in response to Channel Seven’s current s-xting scandal, which has highlighted the need for law reform and education.

Seven Network issued a statement on Brookes’ disqualification, It said “Josh behaved in an inappropriate manner that put him in breach of his responsibilities to the program.”

GenerationNext.com author Dr Ramesh Manocha says “s-xting is a modern scenario. It’s the convergence of power and portable technology with immature brains”.

He told Crikey that “s-xting behaviours can result in making an individual vulnerable to physical, emotional and cyber bullying … Technology has democratised pornography. S-xting is an extension of pornifacation [sic].”

According to Svantesson, “s-xting is regulated by a complex matrix of partially overlapping federal, criminal and civil laws”. This can result in consensual juveniles caught s-xting being placed on the S-x Offenders’ Register.

Associate Professor Kate Crawford and Dr Kath Albury from the University of NSW, whose research in the Journal of Media and Cultural Studies focuses on gender and s-xuality in the media, argue that “youths who ‘s-xt’ risk being charged under the very legislation that’s designed to protect them. They are simultaneously framed as the perpetrators and victims.”

Justice Megan Latham of the NSW Supreme Court told Crikey “the danger when casting the law in such a way is that it has unintended consequences.”

The inadequacies and inappropriateness of the slow reforming law are not only at fault. The problematic nature of viral technologies exacerbates the violation of child pornography laws

Recommendations made in the Australian Privacy Foundation submission focus on raising awareness and education. Svantesson told Crikey “we need regulation, technological solutions and education.”

The reality is, that once an image is sent it is beyond the control of the individual. Something you s-xt today, you may regret tomorrow.