A Panoramic View On Life
Watching a "Panorama" programme yesterday evening made me see the world in a very depressing, bleak and nasty light.
If you missed this documentary, it was basically a rather disturbing insight into what is unfortunately another example of the more murkier side of the internet and the craze of what's called "happy slapping". To the uninitiated, "happy slapping" is the filming of fights and other violent incidents, often using a mobile phone, before uploading the footage onto a website for the purposes of entertainment. Exactly who this is meant to be entertaining for, I just cannot comprehend. It would have been bad enough had most of the footage featured in the BBC documentary been adults, but it mainly involved teenagers. It wasn't the normal pushing and shoving you expect from your average boisterous youngster either. This was full on violence where people were getting hurt and badly, with the victim often out numbered and pounced upon by strangers.
What made it even more galling was the fact that the websites involved didn't seem to think anything was wrong. They said that "the community", which is how they referred to other users of the internet, had the chance to register complaints against anything they thought unsuitable and if they did so, steps could be taken to remove such material. Judging by the online comments made by "the community", who all seemed to want more of the same, I personally don't have much faith in such methods of policing the internet.
I also cannot understand how those who run and profit very handsomely from these sites, can think that relying on the really bad stuff being flagged up by other users is enough. The problem, as I see it, is that we have a pre-internet legal system that dates back too far for it to be of much or any use now.
A drastic overhaul is long overdue.
If you missed this documentary, it was basically a rather disturbing insight into what is unfortunately another example of the more murkier side of the internet and the craze of what's called "happy slapping". To the uninitiated, "happy slapping" is the filming of fights and other violent incidents, often using a mobile phone, before uploading the footage onto a website for the purposes of entertainment. Exactly who this is meant to be entertaining for, I just cannot comprehend. It would have been bad enough had most of the footage featured in the BBC documentary been adults, but it mainly involved teenagers. It wasn't the normal pushing and shoving you expect from your average boisterous youngster either. This was full on violence where people were getting hurt and badly, with the victim often out numbered and pounced upon by strangers.
What made it even more galling was the fact that the websites involved didn't seem to think anything was wrong. They said that "the community", which is how they referred to other users of the internet, had the chance to register complaints against anything they thought unsuitable and if they did so, steps could be taken to remove such material. Judging by the online comments made by "the community", who all seemed to want more of the same, I personally don't have much faith in such methods of policing the internet.
I also cannot understand how those who run and profit very handsomely from these sites, can think that relying on the really bad stuff being flagged up by other users is enough. The problem, as I see it, is that we have a pre-internet legal system that dates back too far for it to be of much or any use now.
A drastic overhaul is long overdue.
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