Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Australian politician accidentally 'likes' Facebook picture of teenager exposing himself

Peter Collier has apologised after clicking button under photo of 16-year-old playing flashing prank

Heather Saul
Friday 17 May 2013 09:07 EDT
Comments
Peter Collier, Western Australia's Minister for Education had clicked the 'like' button on what he thought was an innocent picture of a 16-year-old boy in 2011
Peter Collier, Western Australia's Minister for Education had clicked the 'like' button on what he thought was an innocent picture of a 16-year-old boy in 2011 (Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

An Australian politician has been forced to publicly apologise after clicking ‘like’ on a Facebook photo of a teenager exposing his genitals.

Peter Collier, Western Australia’s Minister for Education had clicked the ‘like’ button on what he thought was an innocent picture of a 16-year-old boy in 2011. The picture was actually part of a prank known as ‘sneaky nuts’, in which people subtly expose their genitals when posing for photographs.

Collier apologised on Thursday, stating that he was completely unaware that the teenager, who was otherwise fully clothed and stood next to another man, had exposed himself.

He said that the incident “highlighted the pitfalls of social media”.

In a statement he said: “It was a silly mistake on my part. I only became aware of the actual content of the photo when shown by a journalist.

“I apologise if I caused any offence.”

The stunt was popularised by Australian comedian Chris Lilley on ABC TV show Angry Boys, where a character enjoys ruining group photos by subtly exposing himself. It has already posed problems for schools after a yearbook printed 1,300 times contained a photo of a student exposing his genitals. Administrators at the Catholic school in Canada where the year book was printed resorted to placing stickers over the photo.

The incident had not attracted attention until last month when the teenager in question spoke on Twitter about duping Collier.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in