Why Is It That Online Services Companies Need To Be Moral -- But Individuals Don't?
from the just-wondering dept
And here we go again. The latest politician to point the blame gun at the wrong target is the UK's education secretary, Alan Johnson. He was out complaining about cyberbullying and said that websites that host videos have a "moral obligation" to filter such content and take it down. There's been a lot of overreacting to cyberbullying lately, including things like banning YouTube in schools because it's been used for cyberbullying. However, again, the blame-placing is totally misguided. It's not YouTube or any other site's fault or "moral responsibility" to deal with the sophomoric actions of kids. It's the kids themselves and their parents. If YouTube has a "moral responsibility" to guard against this type of thing, then why don't the kids themselves have a much larger moral responsibility? Why isn't the education secretary focused on, I don't know, actually educating students about bullying, so they can learn how to better deal with it, rather than pretending he can hide it by asking online sites to deal with the problem. He also seems somewhat confused (someone should educate him) about how the internet actually works, and why it's really not reasonable or feasible for these sites to monitor and filter such content. Finally, the focus on the "cyber" part of the bullying is also misguided. Bullying is bullying -- and why should it matter if it's done online or done in person? The focus should be on bullying, period, without worrying about whether or not it involves the internet. Pretending that you've solved bullying just because you've taken it offline is a head-in-the-sand approach, where you pretend that just because you can no longer see it, it's gone away.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Here's a thing for those kids like that:You can replace an iPod. You can deal with bulling. You can't bring back a life.
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Though I agree with the sentiment of the article this point is worth noting.
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Part of Life
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Shifting...
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It's About Time
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blame the parents for neglegence not the cites because they dont feel like waisting the time to filter the content idiot kids put on there sites
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stupid people
blame the parents for neglegence not the cites because they dont feel like waisting the time to filter the content idiot kids put on there sites
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Easier
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Welcome to the UK
Therefore, students that are out of control are not the fault of the parents, but of the video sharing sites.
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What is cyber bullying anyway?
On this issue of who is responsible, the individual is responsible for his actions, and to say that parents are to blame as well is to point the finger at every adult in that childs life. For as adults we are all responsible for the influence we have on others, especially children. Education begins in the home, yet it extends other family members, neighbors, teachers, clergy, polictical figures, and clebrities and media figures.
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