COUNSELLORS who spoke to The New Paper on Sunday said such acts usually came from troubled people.

Mr David Kan, executive director of the Family Life Centre, said such people may do so to get attention and recognition.

He said: 'They may have done what they did in order to get the ABC (acceptance, belonging and connection) missing in their lives.

'Posting the nude photographs online was probably their way of getting self-significance.'

Mr Harry Low, a senior counsellor at NUS Counselling Centre, said it was not just a Western phenomenon, but was also known among young people and celebrities in Asian countries like Korea.

Mr Wilson Mack, clinical director of the Eagles Mediation and Counselling Centre, said: 'Some professionals suggest the posing is used to impress their boyfriend or girlfriend.

'Some do so with a false sense of independence and personal freedom.

'Some psychologists hypothesise that posing nude on the Internet provides a momentary 'thrill' to inflate the ego of the sender while having the 'added bonus' of increasing the sexual arousal of the recipient(s).'

Mr Low said people may also post nude photographs online to spite ex-boyfriends or ex-girlfriends, or to protest against what they perceive as restrictive and prohibitive ways imposed by parents, family members or peers.

He said: 'But unfortunately, such acts do not hurt the other party as much as they hurt the people who post the photographs.'

Mr Low said parents should ask their children open questions to find out why they did what they did.

He said: 'Teenagers and young people want to open up to genuine people and if parents are genuine, their children will open up to them.'

Mr Kan said: 'Parents should not just say 'no'. Children aged 16 to 20 are in their adolescent phase and it is usually impossible to change their mindsets at these ages, but parents can change how they react to their actions.

'If parents are not resistant to their children, they will be more likely to open up to them.'