Amateur Porn, Cyber Bullying and the Tragic Death of Aly

The first thing one would notice upon seeing pictures or videos of the late Alyssa Funke was that she was incredibly magnetic. Not the type of forced magnetism which is common place on social media, but rather the type of effortless charisma that so rarely comes natural. It’s this simple fact which makes her death even more of a tragedy….if that is even possible. Alyssa was 19 years old and from Stillwater, Minnesota. She had very little stability inside her house growing up, with a father in-and-out of jail, and a mother who was arrested for dealing drugs and neglecting Alyssa’s younger siblings. Alyssa moved in with her grandmother when she was just a young teenager. Despite this adversity, Alyssa showed the tell-tail signs of someone that was truly remarkable. She was a gymnast, straight-A student and aspiring anesthesiologist. She also struggled with money- having to transfer Colleges from St. Catherine University to University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Alyssa turned to amateur pornography to help pay for college. She wound up having what could probably be classified as a lapse of judgement (as we all do when we’re young) and performed on a site called CastingCouch-x. The ramifications were devastating to her, as she had to deal with intense cyber-bullying from her old high school classmates, as well as new college peers. Although Alyssa posted to her social media accounts as if everything was fine… unfortunately it was quite the opposite. Just a little more that two weeks after the video was posted in march of 2014, Alyssa decided to buy a 12-gauge shotgun and head to Big Carnelian Lake in Minnesota, using a borrowed car. It was at that moment where she chose to end her life.
(Image of the boat dock at Big Carnelian Lake)
Alyssa was the type of person I wish I could learn more about. At the tender age of 19, her tweets suggest that she had depth beyond her years: For somebody as endearing and talented as she was to do something so drastic is beyond sad, and it raises a lot of points about what we can do in today’s world to prevent things like this from happening. Most importantly, we have to consider raising the legal age for adult film performers. If someone under 21 is considered too immature to drink, why then are they considered old enough to perform in an adult film? For the record, I believe that if someone chooses to go into that industry after they’re a little older, that is their decision and right to do so. No girl (or guy for that matter) that is younger than 21 should be able to have sex in front of a camera for a studio- and that be something that is condoned as acceptable in modern society. Unfortunately, not only are teenagers allowed to do porn, but youth porn is its own thriving subsection within the porn industry. Consumers fetishize about it; and you can find a ‘Teens’, and more disturbingly ‘exploited teens’ category on almost any major porn website.