To the best of my knowledge, there are no naked pictures of me on the Internet.

I have never sent anyone a picture of myself on my cell phone. In fact, I don’t know how to take a picture with my cell phone.

I don’t have a MySpace page. I am not a member of Facebook.

I am old. Sometimes that’s not a bad thing.

Which is my way of saying that I feel bad for Michael Phelps.

The golden boy who captured a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics has been tarnished – in some people’s eyes - , after a picture of him smoking marijuana from a “bong” surfaced in a British tabloid.

The 23-year-old promptly apologized for what he called “regrettable behavior” and “bad judgment.” It’s not the first time his actions outside the pool have caused a few ripples. He picked up an underage DUI charge back in 2004.

In both incidents, these actions occurred in “down time” after Phelps competed in the Olympics.

I am glad I grew up when I did. There were no cell phones. There was no Internet.

I did a lot of stupid things when I was a kid. It’s what young people do.

But none of them have been plastered all over the Internet. Kids today don’t have that luxury.

It is something I am always telling my own kids. Be very careful what is posted on your MySpace and Facebook entries.

Once something makes it to the Internet – and doesn’t everything these days? – it is out of your hands. Maybe more importantly, it is forever.

If it seems like more and more of our lives is being recorded, that’s because it is. We snap pictures with cell phones and think nothing of sharing them with friends. With one click of a button, those very same images can be shared with the rest of the world.

Schools and law enforcement agencies across the country are now dealing with a whole new set of problems tied into this technology. Kids today think nothing of snapping a few naked pictures of themselves and sharing them with a boyfriend and girlfriend. It’s the high-tech version of “Whisper Down the Lane.” What do you think the chances are that someone is going to share that image with someone for whom it was never intended? No, kids would never do that, would they? At that point the cat is out of the bag.

I’m not condoning what Michael Phelps. Clearly it was wrong. Certainly that’s not the image his handlers and corporate sponsors are looking to promote. I’m just as certain he never thought that shot of him would be shared with the media and his fans around the globe.

That’s the world we live in today. Technology is a good thing. But it has made our lives infinitely more complicated.

Just ask Michael Phelps. He did something dumb. That gives him something in common with kids all over the world.

He just didn’t think it was going to be viewed all over the world as well.