Some of the new technologies that surround us today can have a harm on our personal lives and our relationships because of the way people present themselves or how others treat other users. A mass of our society has created a lower expectation of privacy for themselves. They will post pictures of them doing illegal activities on their web page or send pornography via text message, known as "sexting." These examples show that they are open to the world. Whether they realize the harms or not, I do not know. Do people think about how long the image of themselves will stay on the Internet? Do they realize that if they send nude pictures of themselves to someones cell phone they can or will show other people?
I recently saw an episode on the Tyra Banks Show about a young girl who sent her boyfriend pornographic photos of them making out. The couple had broken up and he began showing them to his friends. When she found out, she requested that he returned the photos, but he refused. They had a judge on the show that said he legally did not have to return the photos because she gave them to him. That is the same about what we post on the web. We are not legally guaranteed to get them returned if someone uses them inappropriately.
We must be careful what we post on the Internet or what we choose to share with the world because people may use them inappropriately. There are many things that can happen to your image or content. It can be manipulated, stolen, spread, etc.
People on social networking sites or on the web may not be who they seem. When MySpace first came out, my friend thought it would be funny to create an account of a fake guy. She dressed up in guy clothes and put a hat and sun glasses on. She took a few photos and posted them on her profile. She then began by chatting with girls pretending to hit on them. She did this for pure amusement, she thought it was funny. She now sees the stupidity but she was young then and more immature. I think that there are other people out there who make these same pages. We have to be careful when creating new friends online because they may completely different then they portray themselves to be. If someone did develop a relationship with a "fake" person, is it still real?
Another thing that can happen is that someone take your pictures and create a page with whatever information they want. If they put information up there that would make us look bad then people could see that and judge you, they would not know that it was not your page. In class we have been talking about how more and more employers are viewing potential employers blogs. If someone created a page about you with untruthful facts then the employer would have mis-judgement.
I recently saw an episode on the Tyra Banks Show about a young girl who sent her boyfriend pornographic photos of them making out. The couple had broken up and he began showing them to his friends. When she found out, she requested that he returned the photos, but he refused. They had a judge on the show that said he legally did not have to return the photos because she gave them to him. That is the same about what we post on the web. We are not legally guaranteed to get them returned if someone uses them inappropriately.
We must be careful what we post on the Internet or what we choose to share with the world because people may use them inappropriately. There are many things that can happen to your image or content. It can be manipulated, stolen, spread, etc.
People on social networking sites or on the web may not be who they seem. When MySpace first came out, my friend thought it would be funny to create an account of a fake guy. She dressed up in guy clothes and put a hat and sun glasses on. She took a few photos and posted them on her profile. She then began by chatting with girls pretending to hit on them. She did this for pure amusement, she thought it was funny. She now sees the stupidity but she was young then and more immature. I think that there are other people out there who make these same pages. We have to be careful when creating new friends online because they may completely different then they portray themselves to be. If someone did develop a relationship with a "fake" person, is it still real?
Another thing that can happen is that someone take your pictures and create a page with whatever information they want. If they put information up there that would make us look bad then people could see that and judge you, they would not know that it was not your page. In class we have been talking about how more and more employers are viewing potential employers blogs. If someone created a page about you with untruthful facts then the employer would have mis-judgement.
Also we must be careful of predators that are on the web. If you make a friendship with someone be careful when meeting them in person. There are several cases where is has led to rape or murder. The predators will create a relationship with you that will feel so real, but it could be a distorted relationship because they may be in it for different reasons than you. I found an article on this matter in the Washington Post, "Myspace Against Predators," by Karen Freifeld. The article mentions how Mysapce is concerned about the issues of predators and how the process to adopt new online safety standards to better protect children from sexual predators. The article interviewed a North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper and he said in a report that MySpace had 29,000 registered sex offenders as users. Social networking sites enable and enhance the potential predators or predators.
In class we read an article called "A rape in cyberspace," by Julian Dibbell. It talks about a girl who was in an online chat room when another character raped her. He did not physically, but he typed out the actions. This can hurt some people because they are so connected to their virtual reality world. It is hard to trust other people that are online. It is a difficult place to regulate though without crossing into freedom of speech. This girl was very hurt by the rape but there is not a way for him to be punished. The only thing they can do is delete his character but he could get back online and create a new character. How should cases like this be handled? Should he have been punished some how.
Content of the web can be an issue for many, especially for children. You can type anything into google and it will pull up images. Young children can stumble upon pictures that are not age appropriate for themselves. For awhile my parents computer had a virus where it would just pull up random websites over and over again so that there was around ten pages open. Once when I was on it a page of pornographic images popped up. It is scary to me that this could happen to a young child and strike an interest.
Also with adults, pornography is easily accessible. Pornography can be an addiction for many and it can hurt relationships with people in their life, it especially can hurt their companionship with their partner. It also changes the way that woman or men view one another, it sexualizes everything. Also addicts usually take hours out of their day to view the images, so it takes away time to spend with family and friends. When porn is more accessible the chances of an addict looking at the images is higher. A Harvard researcher Ben Edelman, After analyzing subscriber data from an unnamed 'top 10 seller of online adult entertainment,' Ben Edelman said that when comparing broadband subscribers, Utah comes first, with an average of 5.47 per 1000. In second place is Alaska with just over 5.03 per 1000, and coming in third is Mississippi. The amount of pornography users is growing.
Content of the web can be an issue for many, especially for children. You can type anything into google and it will pull up images. Young children can stumble upon pictures that are not age appropriate for themselves. For awhile my parents computer had a virus where it would just pull up random websites over and over again so that there was around ten pages open. Once when I was on it a page of pornographic images popped up. It is scary to me that this could happen to a young child and strike an interest.
Also with adults, pornography is easily accessible. Pornography can be an addiction for many and it can hurt relationships with people in their life, it especially can hurt their companionship with their partner. It also changes the way that woman or men view one another, it sexualizes everything. Also addicts usually take hours out of their day to view the images, so it takes away time to spend with family and friends. When porn is more accessible the chances of an addict looking at the images is higher. A Harvard researcher Ben Edelman, After analyzing subscriber data from an unnamed 'top 10 seller of online adult entertainment,' Ben Edelman said that when comparing broadband subscribers, Utah comes first, with an average of 5.47 per 1000. In second place is Alaska with just over 5.03 per 1000, and coming in third is Mississippi. The amount of pornography users is growing.
This graph shows the amount of pornographic viewers by the top states. The information is based off the amount of broadband subscribers buying adult entertainment. The numbers are based off the amount of people out of 1,000.
We need to be careful about what we share online. Remember that it is a shared network and almost everything you post can be viewed by everyone. There are many ethical issues with the Internet and new technologies but if we are careful, then the benefits outweigh the issues.
I think sexting and people posting dumb pictures of themselves doing illegal things is becoming a real issue. Even though they think their site is private, it isn't always and once a friend or stranger is accepted as your friend they have access to all of your pictures.
ReplyDeleteI do however think that if two young teenagers are doing this the penalty shouldn't be as harsh as they are. They are dumb teenagers with under developed brains who are still maturing.
First hand I know that myspace is trying to crack down on pedophiles that prey on young kids online. I have a myspace account that I don't use often. But when I first had the account I used it often and was approached online by many older men who wanted to talk to me about different everyday things, which is creepy enough. Then one day some guy asked me in a e-mail he sent to my myspace account if I wanted to meet him at his house to hang out. Needless to say I blocked him and was glad I didn't have detailed information about myself on my site to allow him to know how to find me.
I think this is one of my main concerns about the web and new media is that while it is helpful and beneficial for research and connecting with friends and family, it also allows those who want to do harm to others to have more ways to do so.
I think an internet safety lesson should be implemented in elementary through high school grades if it isn't already. This might help cut back on the information that young children and teens give out online and could help protect them in the future.