# What's with all the porno Facebook profiles? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 27, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130 "2009-06-27T01:41:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/1 "2009-06-27T01:41:43Z")
There seems to be a level of Facebook that had been invisible to me. Until I started a closed lesbian group, which needs moderator approval to join. Since almost no one on Facebook reveals their profile information to non-friends, I really have nothing to go on to evaluate the applicants except their profile picture and their friends’ pictures. At least half of the membership applications I’m fielding have blatantly sexual profile pictures, ranging from semi-nude to fully nude to downright pornographic. Consistently, those displaying such pictures also have a friends list full of similar pictures. Seeing a continuous stream of these, I couldn’t help wondering if there’s a whole subculture of swingers on Facebook. Yeah, obviously I’ve led a sheltered existence, but out of my hundreds of FB friends not one has ever posted a sexy profile pic. Yet those who do seem to be clumped together in shared nexuses of friends lists. It’s like FB swingers only make friends with other swingers. Some people seem to have only sex on their one-track brains, and to their eyes anything LGBT looks like an invitation to swing. That isn’t the focus of my group, it’s for staid, sober religious/political/activist lesbians who keep their pants on in public. And given the invariably airbrushed glamour-model look of most of these pics, I suspect at least 9 out of 10 of them of being fake. Real people’s pics have a real-people look to them, and most of these sexy pics don’t pass that sniff test. The one that took the cake applied today. My group’s description says it’s for lesbians only. So this one’s picture shows a glamour model in the arms of a hunky bearded guy, her t\*ts in his face. Lesbian FAIL. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/2 "2009-06-27T02:08:12Z")
I willing to bet that upwards of 99% of those friend requests are, in fact, spam for a porno web site. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/3 "2009-06-27T02:12:11Z")
Well, that’s what happens when you try to create an internet page with the word “lesbian” in it. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/4 "2009-06-27T03:25:22Z")
[Afterellen.com](http://Afterellen.com) seems free of these types. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/5 "2009-06-27T05:21:15Z")
Imagine that anyone creating such a profile uses it only for their swinger friends; a second ID can be used for RL friends who aren’t part of that network. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/6 "2009-06-27T07:17:59Z")
Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative, I figured. In this case the narrative would be something along the lines of why this 20yo hottie is gagging to meet me in the flesh just as soon as I verify my identity by submitting my credit card details to this anonymised website. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/7 "2009-06-27T14:18:26Z")
I wonder how Facebook admin feels about their network being used to spam porn. Most places would crack down on that, you would think. However, I have never seen any actual porno spam there. Although it sounds like a plausible explanation for what these accounts are doing there, I don’t see any evidence of it taking place (but then I haven’t signed up for any sex groups). None of the porno people has offered to friend me, thank goodness, maybe they only go after guys. So their real agenda is hidden from me. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/8 "2009-06-28T01:58:00Z")
The best thing to do is set up an invite system. This is where the person can only get into your group via two ways. The first is using an invite from another member. And you make it clear that if that member invites someone and that person is a jerk, she will also be banned. That way they won’t be tossing away invites. The second is to use an IRC channel for screening. In case you are unfamiliar with [IRC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irc) you could use it to conduct a brief 5 minute inteview via chat. There are tons of free chat clients or you could even use AOL or Yahoo messenger if you prefer to conduct the pre-screen chat. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2009, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/9 "2009-06-28T04:01:56Z")
To contact any of these people, I could just send a message via Facebook. The reason I don’t want to do that is, if you send somebody a message then your profile becomes visible to them for a month. I guard my privacy from strangers more carefully than that. Are you saying that going on nothing but a Facebook name I could contact them via IRC? For that to work I would have to have some means of notifying them to join the IRC chat, other than Facebook PMs. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/10 "2009-06-28T05:23:16Z")
I had a similar group on Myspace for a while and I was sick of trying to weed the fake types out… it was for GLBT people in NE Wisconsin… and I was getting all kinds of porno spam. ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2009, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/11 "2009-06-28T23:14:01Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > The one that took the cake applied today. My group’s description says it’s for lesbians only. So this one’s picture shows a glamour model in the arms of a hunky bearded guy, her t\*ts in his face. Lesbian FAIL. :rolleyes: Totally a guy posing as a woman. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/12 "2009-06-29T07:17:23Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > To contact any of these people, I could just send a message via Facebook. The reason I don’t want to do that is, if you send somebody a message then your profile becomes visible to them for a month. I guard my privacy from strangers more carefully than that. Are you saying that going on nothing but a Facebook name I could contact them via IRC? For that to work I would have to have some means of notifying them to join the IRC chat, other than Facebook PMs. Well, you can regulate what portion of your Facebook profile is in the public section. You really shouldn’t have anything in that section that you would normally want to keep private if you are using Facebook for anything more than just talking to RL friends. You’d probably be better off making your group a person. (if that isn’t against Facebook rules.\*) That way, when they add you, you’ll get their public profile. If they don’t want to offer their public profile, they really shouldn’t be in a private group like yours, as the point of those if for the people to talk to each other. And the point of Facebook is the profiles. As for the OP, actual nudity is against the rules of Facebook and should be reported. As for the rest, well, there are a lot of exhibitionists out there, as well as people who want to fake being sexy online. And most of these people are of the caliber that “lesbian” equals porno. \*If it is, I know it’s not against the rules to have a second profile. Use that to contact your patrons. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/13 "2009-06-29T15:24:54Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > As for the OP, actual nudity is against the rules of Facebook and should be reported. Was going to say this. Until recently they were taking down pics of women breastfeeding, so they should be pretty vigilant if you report any actual T&A. Facebook is pretty spam-free until you try to start anything that’s open to the public. (Or have friends who are DJs or run clubs and need to remind you of their nights every 12 minutes.) ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/14 "2009-06-29T15:39:22Z")
> [@Cat\_Fight](#): > > Was going to say this. Until recently they were taking down pics of women breastfeeding, so they should be pretty vigilant if you report any actual T&A. Facebook is pretty spam-free until you try to start anything that’s open to the public. (Or have friends who are DJs or run clubs and need to remind you of their nights every 12 minutes.) I thought that too, but then I started doing some adult-themed searches and realized there are tons and tons of FB profiles with nude/explicit pics in them. Was kind of surprised. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/15 "2009-06-29T17:13:03Z")
I’m not reporting them because I don’t consider it my duty to police Facebook. I have no objection to people getting nude online in their own spaces, I just screen them out of the group I’m responsible for. And it has worked: there has been no spam in my group. Outside of it, people can do what they please, it isn’t my business. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/16 "2009-06-29T17:36:11Z")
> [@Pyper](#): > > Totally a guy posing as a woman. Hell yes. That’s just taking the piss, and I’m outraged on behalf of my WBWI lesbian niece. ETA: Oh well, apparently it’s something to do with radio in Wisconsin. I thought it made a very nice acronym for Woman Born, Woman Identifed. ---
**Author:** ![Zhen\_ka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecccb3/32.png) [@Zhen\_ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zhen_ka)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/17 "2009-06-30T01:28:55Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I’m not reporting them because I don’t consider it my duty to police Facebook. I have no objection to people getting nude online in their own spaces, I just screen them out of the group I’m responsible for. And it has worked: there has been no spam in my group. Outside of it, people can do what they please, it isn’t my business. So, then, what’s the problem? Maybe these people _are swingers_ looking for like-minded lesbians to “friend” them. I think that it’s great. The internets are sometimes the only outlet for people to connect to others. Like the tranny sites. Where would transsexuals go if they thought that they’d encounter prejudice? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-all-the-porno-facebook-profiles/501130/18 "2009-06-30T14:50:10Z")
No spam in my group. That’s all.