Cosplay Scandal- April Fool's 2016

I'll be the first to admit, I HATE pranks. However, the cosplay community over the past 2 years has banded together to make silly, harmless fun things to hopefully make the community laugh. And this year, we did it for a greater good and to draw attention to an important cause!

MY N00DZ WERE LEAKED OMFG

So hundreds of us got together to post clickbait-ey things and badly shopped our images to pixellated perfection. You'd be shocked how many people didn't get the joke, even with the obvious silliness of it! But if you went to the bottom of the page, you'd see a disclaimer.

I don't have the disclmainer on hand, but please see below for the NEW updated site and I'll paste in the text as well:

WWW.COSPLAYSCANDALS.COM
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Happy (day-after) April Fool’s Day!! The prank is over, but most of you picked up on the joke right away! We really thought the puns our team came up with added to the humor....and we had fun with it, so we hope you did too!

We saw a lot of great responses, but we especially loved this video Chelsea made for our April Fool's Day Cosplay Scandal !

While some photos were obviously cardboard pixels, some photos were done digitally of course. So, to clear the air, we are sharing some before-and-after photos to make sure everyone knows that no cosplayers were sharing any actual scandalous photos!

Here's an example of a Cubone in her original photo + her altered 'scandalous' photo.

Here's an example of Mr. Misty in his original photo + altered 'scandalous' photo

All the cosplayers enjoyed reading most people’s reactions and laughing when people realized it was a joke. The reality is not everyone’s responses were acceptable or appropriate. Below are some examples of people who crossed the line (their names redacted) when responding to this fake breach of privacy...

Seemingly harmless 'joke' comment... but the fact of the matter is no one should ever HOPE that someone's privacy be breached or their private images be shared with the world, just so someone can get a peak at another person's body without their permission.

Victim blaming is never okay! While everyone should be careful about the technology they are using, telling someone they should never have anything they don't want stolen is ignorant.

And while some people crossed the line in their responses, it was refreshing to see others were stepping up and responding in a mature, supportive and positive way for the cosplayers.

And of course, we always appreciate people who know how to be positive and go along with the joke!

We went into this prank to get a reaction and to raise awareness of the on-going issues of revenge porn, slut shaming, data-breach/theft, and victim blaming. The people that hack into computers and violate personal security are not pranksters, they are sex offenders, sometimes even accessing data from minors.

TLDR - If some one did not give consent to having their photo posted or shared, report the image. Do not save them to your computer. Do not upload them to other websites. If it’s revenge porn or something else breaking the law, contact the local authorities!

Thanks to everyone involved and everyone who went along with and enjoyed this joke. See you next year ! (there's talk about renting a space shuttle... these pranks are getting too elaborate already!)

BONUS! Before and after Janna !