"5 Seconds of Summer" bassist Calum Hood got himself into trouble when a graphic video of him exposing himself was uploaded online by a fan.
But rather than denying the indiscretion, the teen took responsibility for his actions, and urged fans to remember that he was just a teen who is learning from his mistakes.
I'm still just a teenage kid learning from mistakes :)
— Calum Hood (@Calum5SOS) August 29, 2014
Least ya know what it looks like now — Calum Hood (@Calum5SOS) August 29, 2014
The video is five seconds long and it shows the bassist, whose head is out of shot, peeling off his clothes. A fan, who is yet to be identified, posted the footage on video sharing service Vine and captioned it, "CALUMS D*** IM SCREAMING."
While a number of people were quick to lash out at Hood for sending the graphic video to the fan, several "5SoS" fans defended the bassist, giving rise to Twitter hashtags #WeLoveYouCalum, #SaveCalumHood and #WeDontCareCalumWeAreHereForYou.
"Calum could have easily lied and said the video wasn't his and we all would have believed it, but he chose to tell the truth and if that isn't a sign of maturity, I don't know what is," a message on Twitter read.
Meanwhile, this leaked video has once again highlighted the issue of how unsafe it is to release graphic pictures of videos into the online sphere. For instance, forensic researcher Richard Hickman discovered that Snapchat photos on Android phones are not deleted as popularly assumed. Instead, they are just hidden and can be retrieved with the proper forensic software, reported the Guardian.
However, Snapchat, in its blog, noted that it is not an issue as long as people are careful, and refrain from sending sensitive content.
"If you've ever tried to recover lost data after accidentally deleting a drive or maybe watched an episode of CSI, you might know that with the right forensic tools, it's sometimes possible to retrieve data after it has been deleted. So… you know… keep that in mind before putting any state secrets in your selfies :)" the blog post read.