It’s 7 a.m. Sunday. Do you know where your blog is?

That thought passed through my head when I discovered this morning that mischievous Web surfers had hijacked a reader poll on this blog.

Within a few hours, they had manipulated the survey to cast 144,661 votes in favor of the idea that it’s appropriate for 12-year-old actresses to appear in nude scenes — 93 percent of the total votes cast.

Before I could pull the plug on that survey, a post appeared on the Web referral site Digg with the absurd but upsetting headline, “Polls show 99% of Orange County residents are pedophiles.”

The foundation for that bizarre incident was laid in July, when singer Miley Cyrus said singer Madonna is her role model and MSNBC reported that Cyrus hoped to land a movie role containing a nude scene.

I published a post connecting the Cyrus news to the book “The Lolita Effect,” which claims that the American beauty industry profits from the promotion of sexuality at ever-younger ages.

In that July 23 post, titled “Miley Cyrus ‘nude scene’ rumor fits with profit-driven sexuality push,” I included a survey asking readers what they thought was the youngest age that’s appropriate for a nude scene.

Such surveys are unscientific, but they’re set up to limit votes to one per computer.

As of July 28, several hundred people had participated in the survey. At that point the results were fairly evenly divided among different ages as the youngest appropriate for a nude scene:

• 25% for age 18
• 19% for age 12
• 18% for age 16
• 18% for age 21

I wrote up those results in a post titled, “Nearly a quarter of readers support nude scenes for 12-year-olds.” That post mentioned the furor over the child prostitute’s role that Brooke Shields played in the 1978 film “Pretty Baby” when she was age 12.

The survey remained open to new votes through this weekend, attracting a few dozen readers each day. Then a Digg member spotted the survey and encouraged others to vote for 12-year-olds in nude scenes. That suggestion captured the attention of another Web referral site, StumbleUpon.  As result, by midday today’s traffic for the July 23 post and survey totaled 4,707 page views.

Some of those visitors didn’t just vote; they also figured out how to manipulate the survey so the vote total quickly reached 179,859, with about 93 percent of them favoring age 12.

That led to the ridiculous Digg submission about Orange County and pedophiles. Despite its obvious absurdity, several  people commenting on the item expressed disgust and shock, as did readers who commented on the In Your Face blog post containing the survey.

Other commenters kept the discussion on the original topic. For example:

i dont see whats so wrong. miley has talent. …. not all of her acting has too be kid friendly. just let her do what she wants, and if thats a nude scene, fine!

To prevent further ridiculousness, I shut down the survey. The most valid results seem to be those of July 28, I guess. They suggest that the American public is deeply divided about teenage sexuality — not a surprising conclusion.

The incident serves as is a reminder that that many Web surfers are fascinated with young girls, talented at computer-based mischief, or both.

That’s also no surprise, but I’m taken aback by the number of readers who took the manipulated survey results at face value and reached conclusions such as “This is a disgusting age we live in” and “The viewers and purveyors of that site are disgusting pedophiles.”

Oh, well.

Now it’s 12:30 p.m.  and I do know where my blog is.  With the distressing survey shut down, I’m pleased to report that the In Your Face blog is safe at home once again.

Related links:

• Miley Cyrus ‘nude scene’ rumor fits with profit-driven sexuality push
• Nearly a quarter of readers support nude scenes for 12-year-olds
• Lindsay Lohan and breast implants

For more on celebrities and cosmetic medicine, see links on the right side of this blog.

Posted in: OC • Reader surveys • Miley Cyrus |

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