Maybe it's not Internet but the camera phones? I mean they are everywhere.
I'm sure this is the fear, but the perceived risk surely outweighs the actual risk.
It's not like there would be zero repercussions for posting nude beach pics on mainstream social media, and anywhere else (niche, personal website, porn forums/sites) means almost nobody you ever know would ever see pics of you au naturel. Ever.
But, yes, I agree this is the fundamental (even if I think irrational) fear.
I don't think it's likely anyone you're close to would see the pics, but it's not hard to imagine someone you kind of know from someplace like work seeing them.
I have to imagine that we are not far from a popular public facial search engine. Send a picture from FB or LI and it will show you these pictures.
We have the technology, and it's a tool available to governments and large businesses already. It's not a leap to assume this will be a normal product that people use in the next 5 years.
Anyway, will there be no public outcry? Will these things not be shut down immediately by politicians who suddenly find they've been filmed at nude beaches and now all the world can see?
Idle curiosity. Stalking. Digging up dirt.
>Will these things not be shut down immediately
Putting technological genies back in bottles is very difficult especially when there are very legitimate uses. Automated photo tagging is already a thing in something like Lightroom and some photo sharing sites and it's quite useful.
So I take a picture and run it through this public facial search engine, then what am I hoping to find?
Super-embarrassing pictures that I can use to destroy my archnemesis? Become more obsessed with the object of my unrequited love? Would people pay for this product?
I guess I still wonder at the risk level even in this hypothetical. What are the chances that I successfully find a nude beach pic of someone that I am looking for, or for someone intentionally to find one of me? I still suspect that the probability is incredibly small.
I mean, I don't care if there are nude beaches or not. People can do what they want. I just don't see the risk.
The problem isn't the act, the problem is being able to be judged for that act, for eternity, by people who will choose to shame and judge you for it to their benefit. This can cause stress and trouble whether we want it to or not.
The problem is not other people's judgement, it's one's own inability to cope with the idea that others may be judging. It's called insecurity.
For what it's worth I go to nude beaches and nudist resorts/campgrounds as often as I can. It took me only a few times to get over it. No one cares but yourself, really.