Athlete's Racy Pics Stir Questions of Privacy, Sexuality

Nov. 28, 2007 — -- Nude and racy photographs of a National Hockey League top draft pick that were posted widely on the Internet have raised questions about responsible online behavior for people in the public eye, and also about sexuality in Major League sports.

Toronto Maple Leaf forward Jiri Tlusty, 19, originally posted the photos on his Facebook page, according to The Toronto Sun, which first broke the story. One of those pictures show Tlusty nearly touching tongues with another man.

Other images that depict the player nude have turned up on various Internet sites and blogs. Those were cell phone photos the player apparently sent to a woman he met on the Internet, who then posted them.

Tlusty apologized publicly for the photographs, and in a statement released by the Leafs said that he had "learned a valuable lesson."

Tlusty's actions were a "naïve mistake as a teenager," John Ferguson, the general manager of the team, said in a statement provided to ABCNEWS.com. It's a "lesson in how something private can easily become very public in the Internet age."

And while Tlusty did deny he is gay or even bisexual, the reactions to the photos largely focused around Internet safety. The incident is a sign that the increasing number of private photos getting leaked on the Internet underscores the care people, both ordinary and celebrity, need to take, experts told ABCNEWS.com.

"We have so many more users around the world taking advantage of these new technologies that we are seeing more instances of people making mistakes," said Arthur Cockfield, a cyberspace guru at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada. "[This hockey player] probably thought he set his privacy settings and that the picture wouldn't get out."

And as if the Maple Leafs hadn't had enough media attention, "Breakfast With Scot" a fictional movie about a gay hockey player --