Online Privacy
Reading an article on HEXUS (Kerrison, 2006) the other day got me thinking more about online privacy and how it affects us. It reminded me of a youtube video I'd seen a few weeks back now. It was about a popular youtube figure (Renetto) discussing why he thought that putting his children in his videos was suitable. I've put this video below, and as you can see, he made sure the default image on the video was one to cause a reaction (his aim on youtube is to get as many subscribers as possible). This video (Renetto, 2006) and the follow-up video that was made obviously provoked a lot of responses, which had surprisingly very mixed thoughts on the subject.
Renetto knew that posting images of his children online could cause increased potential risk to them. However, in a similar way, it was his argument that taking his children swimming could cause an increased risk of them drowning, therefore he decided it shouldn't be a problem, since most things in life cause risk. My view is that where possible risks in life should be minimised as much as possible. Therefore, you don't post videos of your children online, in the same way you don't go swimming on your own.
Anyway, back to the HEXUS article. This pointed the finger at social networking sites, such as myspace for people's lack of concern for their privacy online. However, as some of the community posts that followed said, it is the users of those sites that need to be educated and changed, not the sites themselves. It's my view that people should be free to post what they want online (within the law of course), but should be told more about what is safe to upload for the world to see. The slashdot community were quick to point out that this attitude isn't restricted to social networking sites only, as too much information can be given via a simple email or a personal web site.
Kerrison, S (2006) Social network users have ruined their privacy, forever [internet], HEXUS. Available from: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=7499
Renetto (2006) Pedophile Alert... What are the DANGERS? [internet], youtube. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ICJCx0BaV0
posted by Adrian at 11:30 pm
1 Comments:
Adrian, that was a really good post and thank you for using one of my blog posts as an artifact towards your COOL blog. I have to say I was myself, shocked that he was publically showing his children in his videos. Though after watching the video itself I could completely relate to what his arguments were. When we were younger as children I had friends who wouldn't allow me to stay over, I ended up going to my grandmar's instead due to my parents working a lot. He expresses that he solely does it to share his family experiences to fellow members of youtube who also have fmailies. Seems perfectly normal to me, as the same could happen whilst waiting to pick up his children at school (i.e. he could be sharing information to other parents or school teachers etc). Anyways I hope you don't mind this being late, I realise that it is past the handin date but I have not been well mentally over the past few months and as a result have completely shut myself off from my uni work due to lack of concentration over events that have completely changed my life. I will be doing a reply to your video shortly. Pete
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