Everybody stop the presses! One of the world’s most popular celebrities may or may not have nude photos of himself being leaked all over the Internet! But, should you look at them with lust in your eyes, concern for where our culture is headed, or skepticism towards such photos in general?

Here’s how it all went down: Bieber had his laptop and camera stolen during a stop on his “Believe” tour Tuesday night in Washington. Biebs himself tweeted: “Yesterday during the show me and my tour manager josh had some stuff stolen. really sucks. people should respect other’s property…i had a lot of personal footage on that computer.”

Naturally, the media seized on that “personal footage” snippet immediately, and it didn’t take long for headlines to morph into the 4 Golden Search Engine Words:

JUSTIN. BIEBER. NUDE. PHOTOS.

As you read this, those words are popping up everywhere. But, as is usually the case with a celebrity, nobody knows what’s real and what’s not. Google search any name + “nude photos” and you’ll find an endless supply of Photoshopped porn stars with Jessica Biel or Channing Tatum or Betty White’s head attached to their bodies.

So what we have now is a bunch of amateur Sherlocks pouring over pictures of 18-year-old boys manipulating their own…um, manliness. That’s healthy.

Meanwhile, Bieber himself has no reason to confirm or deny any naked photo is actually him. These stars never do, because the more quiet they keep about it, the more everyone talks – and ultimately, talk equals buzz which equals money.

Another thing that no one has considered yet – and, obviously, this is speculative – is that the timing seems oddly perfect for these “photos” to be “stolen.” Bieber has lots of things to currently promote. Meanwhile, now that he’s 18, the clock has begun ticking on how long the “teen heartthrob” label can keep working for him. If he wants to become Justin Timberlake and not Jonathan Taylor Thomas, it’s time to establish himself as a dangerous, sexy adult with an edge. Of course, we’d never say Biebs is complicit in this – only that educated pop culture fans shouldn’t always believe everything they read.

So, are those actual photos of Bieber in the buff? At a time when unemployment hovers around 8 percent, 870 million people in the world are undernourished and the autism birth rate has risen 78 percent in the past decade, don’t we as a society have more important things to worry about?

Then again, bad news like that is the reason why people want to escape into conversations about such things. So, if it helps, knock yourself out – go ahead and Google those 4 Golden Search Engine Words and enjoy the ride. Just make sure you’re not at work, okay?