Thailand’s government has warned the country’s women they may face up to five years in prison for posting ‘underboob selfies’ online.
The trend, which has gone viral, involves women taking a photograph of the lower half of their exposed breasts and uploading them on to social media sites.
Celebrity fans include Rihanna and Nicki Minaj. And the pastime is becoming increasingly popular in the South East Asian nation.
But Thailand’s military government has now claimed the practice is “inappropriate” and may violate it’s laws. The country’s 2007 Computer Crimes Act bans ‘obscene computer data, which is accessible to the public’, as well as material that may cause ‘damage to the country’s security or causes public panic’.
The law doesn’t specifically state anything about naked breasts.
The population of Thailand is estimated to be 63 million with women making up 51 per cent of that total.
Officials explained that anyone posting underboob selfies online may face prosecution.
A spokesperson from the culture ministry added that a jail-term of up to five years would be applicable.
“When people take these ‘underboob selfies’ no one can see their faces,” reported Reuters. “So it’s like, we don’t know who these belong to, and it encourages others to do the same.
“We can only warn people to not take it up. They are inappropriate actions.”
It is not known how the government intends to identify culprits, who often have their faces obscured.
Thai ministers has been criticised in the past for its overzealous censorship of film, music and television in an apparent attempt to distance the country from Western culture.
The news comes as Facebook announced an overhaul of its rules about what can and can’t be posted on the social network, with bare backsides, genitals and breasts showing nipples banned – unless they are “actively engaged in breastfeeding or showing breasts with post-mastectomy scarring”.
The site didn’t specify anything relating to the underboob trend.
Via Telegraph.co.uk