Poor Tammy

Feb 24, 2006
Student in sex video: 'We didn't intend to be porn stars' She lost her phone last month, but had forgotten the video was in it
By Sandra Davie and Jermyn Chow

THE Nanyang Polytechnic girl at the centre of the ongoing sex video scandal has spoken up for the first time, describing the past few days as a 'living hell'.

And it got a bit worse yesterday as a new section of the video clip surfaced on the Internet. This just as the student became the No. 1 item on blog search engine Technorati.

But the 17-year-old told The Straits Times over the phone yesterday: 'I have done nothing wrong, I don't know why people are making such a big fuss about it. Everyone does it (films video clips of themselves), even my friends.'

Tammy, as she is called on the Net, said the video she took with her 21-year-old boyfriend was meant for 'personal and private viewing'.

'It was just for fun...we don't intend to be porn stars,' she said.

But in her next breath, she said she regrets filming the explicit video on her phone.

'I can't bear to face people. When I go out, people who know it is me look at me as if I am a porn star.

'Now, looking back, it was a stupid thing to do, because the phone could fall into the wrong hands.'

It did, giving rise to the 'living hell'.

She has had to explain herself to her lecturers, her parents and the police. She even considered quitting her IT diploma course, but her parents and friends persuaded her to stay on.

Tammy confirmed she misplaced her phone last month but because she had forgotten about the video clip, she did not worry about it.

That was until a fellow Nanyang Poly student called her two weeks later to say the video had been spotted on the Internet.

'She told me not to be too worried because there were other homemade sex videos online and they didn't generate much interest,' the soft-spoken girl told The Straits Times.

But her friend was wrong. Last weekend, news of the video exploded on the Net, creating an excited buzz on local forums and blogs.

In the midst of this unfortunate incident, I think that one particular party deserves praise. That's Nanyang Polytechnic.

In less-enlightened days, an institution in Nanyang Polytechnic's shoes would probably say, "Disgusting! Unacceptable! Our wonderful reputation as a premier education institution in Singapore has been damaged! Let's suspend this student from school for six months. Or better still, expel her for good!"

However, nothing like that seems to be happening on Nanyang Polytechnic's part. Which I think is right. Not as if expulsion or suspension would actually accomplish anything. Besides, Tammy committed no crime (quite the opposite - a crime was committed against her).

And let's just be mature, open and sensible about the whole thing. LOTS of 17-year-old girls in Singapore are having sex with their boyfriends. It's just that (1) they may not necessarily film it, (2) having filmed it, they are not necessarily losing their handphones and (3) having lost their handphones, they don't have the misfortune of having the footage circulated around the Internet.

"Look, Adam, let's just say I'm glad
that you don't have a camera handphone."