By Liew Hanqing
IT SEEMS she is willing to exchange real-life nude pictures of herself for something that exists only in cyberspace - items for her online pet.
IT SEEMS she is willing to exchange real-life nude pictures of herself for something that exists only in cyberspace - items for her online pet.
Is that all her modesty is worth?
The question doesn't seem to bother the Facebook user, who introduces herself as Ling Er, an 18-year-old Singaporean.
Her offer has drawn some flak, even from other netizens who are blase about such shenanigans.
As one of them put it, she may have taken games addiction and online barter to a new low.
The teenager set up a Facebook group last month to get netizens to give her virtual items for her character in the popular game Pet Society on the networking site.
Birthday suit
The name of her group: My birthday suit contest.
To date, some 133 users have signed up as members of the group.
The game, which can be played by Facebook members who download it, allows them to create and play with a virtual pet, buy it items, and pit its 'skills' against those of others.
The object of the game is to acquire as many points as possible.
These points allow players to acquire more virtual items for their pets' homes.
On her Facebook group, Ling Er has appealed to netizens to give her their most valuable Pet Society gifts possible.
She claimed that senders of the best five gifts would get a set of nude pictures of her in return.
They have to do so by 1May.
She has even listed those who have sent the most valuable gifts so far.
The teen wrote on the site: 'I will send you guys pics of me in my birthday suit that I was born with.'
Er, does she mean baby pics, perhaps? Who knows.
But since the group was set up, it has attracted more than 100 members, almost all of them men.
In an e-mail reply to The New Paper, Ling Er said she started playing Pet Society just over two weeks ago, and that she plays the game daily, but for less than an hour each time.
She declined to reveal her real name.
The teen said she had started the Facebook group 'just for fun'.
'Also, I like the thrill and I want more gifts (for my pet),' she added.
Asked if she sensed any danger in sending her nude pictures to total strangers, she replied: 'In this day and age, it is easier to find pictures of this nature online than news updates from around the world.'
And will they really be her own pictures? Well, all we know is that she has already put up some that are supposed to be preview pictures.
She claimed that other local women had taken and distributed nude pictures of themselves online with little consequence.
'They're still doing fine,' she insisted.
However, keeping or distributing obscene pictures is against the law.
Ling Er said she has received virtual gifts from more than 10 people in her group.
These include a virtual lamp, guitar and bath tub.
A member of the Facebook group, who declined to be named, said he had joined the group 'for fun'.
He said he had come across the link to the group from a friend's Facebook profile and decided to join on a whim.
'The name of the group sounded interesting, so I decided to have a look. I don't even play the game,' he said.
He added that he found it odd that anyone would offer nude pictures to strangers for virtual items.
'If the items were real, it would be understandable,' he said.
Student Kevin Chua, 16, who is an avid Pet Society player, added he was surprised when a friend told him about the group that had been set up.
He said: 'It's not something you see every day. I just hope she doesn't get into trouble doing this.'
He added that he knew of people who traded virtual items on Pet Society forums and groups on Facebook, but had never seen somebody offering such a deal before.
'It's quite shocking to see what people would do just to get items for an online game.'
Psychiatrists and counsellors that The New Paper spoke to raised their doubts as to whether the promise would be kept.
Gimmick
Said Mr Charles Lee, senior counsellor at Tanjong Pagar Family Service Centre: 'I think she is using sex as the attraction. We don't know if she will give the photos, it could just be a good gimmick.'
However, Mr Lee and Dr Brian Yeo, a consultant psychiatrist at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, said that the act only served to reflect her lack of modesty.
Said Mr Lee: 'Assuming that she really sends nude photos, it just shows her low self-esteem. How she does not care about her privacy? It shows that her relationship with this pet is ranked above her own privacy.'
Parents we spoke with also expressed their concern.
Mrs Magdalene Wong, 53, a mother of two, felt that it was worrying such things could be happening on the social networking site.
She said: 'It's quite shocking to know that it's being used in such a competitive way. Other people who see it might decide to do something that may be even worse.'
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