That thought ran through the minds of a lot of Web surfers last week, at least the ones who regularly check the Technorati Web site (www.technorati.com), the Internet equivalent of TV’s Nielsen ratings. According to the site, the top three subjects the blogosphere was buzzing about were “Tammy,” “ Tammy Download” and “Nyp Tammy.”

According to The Star (Malaysia), “Tammy” was a 17-year-old Singapore student who filmed herself having sex with her boyfriend on her videophone. The phone was lost — then found — by people who released the video onto the Internet.

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“I have done nothing wrong,” “Tammy” told The Straits Times, a Singapore newspaper. “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.”

“It was just for fun ... we don’t intend to be porn stars,” she added.

Cases like “Tammy’s” may be extreme. Clearly, she never intended for that video to ever make it to the Internet. But the second part of her statement should make people take notice: more young people are snapping pictures and video of themselves on their camera phones... and not always in the best situations.

Those that post their camera phone snapshots online may not intend to become “porn stars,” but as law enforcement and the media have time and time again pointed out, that may be what they unwittingly become to online predators. This raises the question: are camera phones and the Internet a perfect match… or a perfect storm?

Moblogs on the move
As their quality has improved and their cost has fallen, camera phones have become increasingly popular, now making up about 40 percent of the wireless phone market, according to a report by communications research firm In-Stat/MDR. In 2005, International Data Corp. estimated that 7.5 billion camera phone pictures were taken, up from 4 billion the year before.

Accordingly, the number of services available to post cell phone photos and videos on the Web has also increased dramatically. “Moblogs,” or photo blogging sites such as TextAmerica (www.textamerica.com), Yafro (www.yafro.com) and Buzznet (www.Buzznet.com) all allow users to upload pictures online directly from their camera phones.

Rabble (www.Rabble.com), a service launched last year on Verizon mobile phones and expanded recently to Cingular customers, is a social network that lets users view pictures and profiles posted by people in their area and allows them to post their own content.

Text America is one of the oldest, and largest moblogs, with more than half a million users. Buzznet counts more than 200,000. The Rabble site currently shows 24,093 current users. While not yet as popular as text blogs, moblog sites have seen their registered members and page views skyrocket in the past year.

What makes these moblog sites so unique and appealing is the spontaneous quality of the often-grainy images, says Sarah Lane, host of G4TV’s “Attack of the Show,” who started up a moblog on TextAmerica in 2003. Since then, it’s become the most viewed moblog on the site.

"When I first got the phone, I found it was perfect for capturing weird things I came across," she says. "It's a way for people to look through your eyes."

Are moblogs safe?
“There’s no such thing as a safe Internet site,” says Chris Hoar, TextAmerica’s founder. “We encourage people to be careful, but we don’t want to limit freedom.”

TextAmerica user Cliff DeMartino and others founded the “TA Mafia,” which “polices the streets of TextAmerica to make sure things stay clean.” One of the things they do is “tag,” or mark, when a user is underage. “We call them Ille-GALS,” DeMartino says. “That warns people not to say or do anything that’s going to get them in trouble.”

DeMartino admits he’s regretted posting certain photos, but refuses to take them down. “I’ve sent a few pics that may or may not be alcohol induced. That’s part of the fun though.”

Looking through moblogs reveals — in addition to typical shots of family, friends and pets — fender-benders, passed out lushes, street performers, funny signs, celebrity sightings, and yes, those infamous late night drunken party pictures. Some of the top viewed Moblogs feature scantily clad women — although the three most popular Moblog sites listed above don’t show anything beyond what could be found in Maxim magazine.

Hoar says his moblogging site takes inappropriate pictures seriously. “We do not allow people to post pornography, if you want porn it’s all over the Web as it is.”

This is not the case for another large moblogging site, which you’ll have to find on your own, if you’re into that sort of thing.