My Official Youtube Rant
Youtube is a reflection of our ever-changing world
Let’s get this out of the way first:
I love youtube. I’m on it all the time.
Now for the bad stuff-
If Google, who bought youtube.com, is serious about being a major superpower in the entertainment industry, they need to self-regulate the video content.
For example, when I was 15, I couldn’t get any comic book that was rated Mature. I was actually rejected when I tried to buy an issue of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. As a punk-teenager, I ranted and raved at first, but I understood the law made was to protect minors from graphic content, since not every kid was as “smart” as I was. (haha) A 17-year old can’t buy a Playboy porno mag. A 13-year old can’t watch a horror movie without a parent at the movie theater. A 16-year old can’t rent DVDs rated NC-17. Yet, all of this content (and MUCH, much more) is readily available on the youtube for all ages to see. And no one seems to have a problem with that.
Copyright infringement gets all of the press, so I will talk about it first, although it’s not my main focus. I do believe Google takes the lazy man ethics [LME] approach to it- they WAIT for NBC to send them cease-and-desist E-MAILS telling them to take full-length episodes of Seinfeld off their site, instead of having a team monitor every new uploaded video. No, we live in a society of instant gratification: uploaded videos are not subject to a delay or approval. Back in the Internet’s infancy, I remember I had to wait for approval to have my photo published for AOL!
I know the counter-arguments: that the quality is poor, and it’s not easy for Average Joe to make a DVD from the video content on youtube. Besides, we’re allowed to tape TV shows on our VCRs or tape music from the radio, right? No big deal since it’s for personal, and not commercial, use. Also, it’s free publicity for music artists, right? And isn’t any publicity good publicity?
We now live in a society where I can watch and listen to stuff that was IMPOSSIBLE to see and hear 10 years ago. It’s just a bittersweet honor, especially since I am from an era where “nothing is for free”. I must say I’m confused about the whole thing, but I do believe the artists or producers must approve or decline videos BEFORE they are posted, and that the “people/users” should NOT be able to self-regulate (“flagging”) and decide for themselves.
But here’s the reason why I’m writing this article. Youtube randomly displays “Videos being watched now” at the top of the screen. You don’t need an account for this; anyone browsing their homepage can see it. The thing is…well, sometimes the content is not suitable for children. I know under the current social structure parents are expected to supervise/monitor their children’s Internet access. I also know, in practice, that’s laughable. I also know that youtube teamed up with Apple’s iPhone, even made it a selling point, and made it easy to access and customize their site. It is implied that youtube is for “all ages”.
So, right now, go ahead and click on some “Videos being watched now” on youtube (which keep in mind, link to “Related videos”- be sure to check those out, too). And I ask you- do you want your child or even teen watching these? If not, you need to e-mail google or congressperson and talk about how “user self-regulation” is not the answer.
For the “REALLY” graphic videos [that I will not post here], youtube gives the following message to people just browsing:
So, readers of the Daily Skew, can I have some proposed solutions? Do parents have time to supervise? Please share. For those who suggest Internet controls or blocking, we know how crafty an 8-year old is. Or perhaps you don’t think it’s a problem….after all kids will be exposed sooner or later, right? I’m open-minded, so let’s hear it. Perhaps I’m just a fascist dinosaur who doesn’t believe in an unregulated free Internet. Or perhaps I know the difference between right and wrong.
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Hey Damian, it’s Mike again. You have the right and freedom to post on your blog, with these videos. You wouldn’t want to give up those rights.The alternative is Red China, where parts of the Internet are blocked.
Similar to your anti-abortion thesis in our Ethics class, I have to scratch my head on this one. On one hand you’re okay with me not wearing my seatbelt (as it should be my right to drive without one), but on the other hand, you seem to be supporting government regulation and censorship.
As more crimes from so-called user-controlled/self-regulated sites increase, the government will be forced to step in. I refer to ebay, craigslist, youtube, myspace, etc.
The “people”/”users” will once again drop the ball, and the highly inefficient government will seize control.
cool vids..but they ain’t nothing thats not on cable tv, dude
Finally, Damian, you posted an article here. I thought you only wrote baseball articles on your other blog.
As far as I can tell, the videos you posted were not in violation of any decency laws, but they do vary from state to state.
Regarding children seeing them, ultimately it is up to the parents to have websites blocked.
Ultimately, however, I know my office would gladly accept cases if a child happens to be corrupted by the youtube videos you’ve posted here for everyone to see.
And just so we’re clear, YES, all of this new technology seems like a problem (and in some cases, a huge one) but eventually cases will be brought into court, and our system will take care of it. Our system is not broken. Do websites have an obligation for true age verification via credit card and driver’s licenses- not now, but I can see the day where it will be necessary. I just don’t think the videos you posted adequately demonstrated youtube’s issues.
I understand what you said Attorney-At-Law. Damian needs to post more Hard Core stuff here.
I don’t think government control is what we need. All we need are better safeguards to protect the innocent. Thumb print, account number, etc. Something that kids cannot bypass.
Something needs to be done.
Youporn.com doesn’t even require a LOGIN or e-mail.
As a concerned parent of a 9-year old, I have absolutely no idea what to do or say.
thx 4 youporn dude!! holy fucken shit, brohan!
bro- you should see how many dvds i have burned already. yeah, kids need protection, no doubt
Users flagging content is the equivalent of drug addicts controlling the pharmacy.
The posts here exemplify society’s hypocrisy and lameness. You have a silent group — offering zero ideas, and you have people that love indulging and either don’t care about the kids or offer lip service like, “Yeah, something’s gotta be done, dude,” while downloading porn from the ‘net.
Parents are fighting against a nuclear-pwered enemy with a water gun. Between sexualized content on television programs and commercials, new ways to get sexual images on the web sprouting every second, fellow classmates teaching your child things you don’t want them to learn about yet, Congressmen unwilling to upset their corporate donors, corporations unwilling to risk losing profits and market share over a morality stand … you get the picture.
We can’t all live on an island — there aren’t enough islnds for all of us. We have to live within our community, for better or worse.
My solution? Honesty and moral effort, starting with yourself, the parent. If you can live the moral standard, your example will be a guide for your kids.
Talk to your kids. Let them know right from wrong. Communication is key, just like in the business world.
Go to a family-friendly Church/religions organization. LDS Church, for example. Unity church. If anyone knows any good Buddhist temples, feel free to share. I know religion is a controversial topic for many reasons, and I’m sure some of you don’t feel you need Church. That’s fine. Whatever works for you.
I feel like quoting Paul from Corinthians — “Be perfect in all you do.”
Even after you do what I recommend above, your child may still turn out to be a criminal mastermind or whatever. Like I said, THEY have the nuclear arsenal, and you have a watergun.
I agree, Tony. Keeping children educated is the key. Having a religious base is a great part of it (if they want to explore or reject it when they’re 18, fine, but some kind of moral and ethical teaching is necessary for kids. Truthfully, kids are a lot like animals- they want the sensual (candy,excitement, etc.) and are very gullible).
As long as we teach and do our best to keep them aware of certain dangers, we must have faith in that they will make the correct decisions.
They are bound to make mistakes, even with religion and good parents, as you said, but that’s life.
By the way, my mother, who has only been surfing the web for maybe 5 months, was the one who told me about Youtube’s “Videos Being Played Now”. I always saw it, and saw it as a symptom of society, almost like when Ozymandias had the hundreds of view screens. When I started clicking on them, was this theory supported.
In terms of blocking these sites from kids- for now, driver’s license or credit card? And google needs to monitor their content.
Youporn needs to have credit card validation.
By the way, Professor Gibbons, I know you always bring my anti-abortion essay up, but just for the record, I can see your point of view that it’s a woman’s decision. As much as society continues to plummet further into the abyss with irresponsible sex, and taking the easy way out, if women want to do it, there’s nothing I can do. It’s not my choice to make. So, thanks for making me see the big—> QUOTE/UNQUOTE “light”.
im on the cell..but wow..what crawled up tony’s ass? what the f did i say??? he can pretend hes a mormon all he wants but hes just like the rest of the boys/
Yeah, granted kids shouldn’t be looking at that stuff, or have access, but it is up to the parents to get software to block certain sites.
Tony wants the government to run our lives, and for us to be Mormon. You know who HE’S voting for….
Proposed solutions :
1- Dont let your kids on the internet altogether.(probably impossible)
2- Keep the computer in the kitchen or living room,
of course then they could always go to a friends house-
but what can people do? “I’m sorry little johnny, but you cant have any friends”.
3- I guess you could mount a web-cam on the back of the chair that is in front of the computer monitor and have the kids watched at all times by the parents who would have the ability to see what their kids are looking at online like something out of George Orwell’s 1984.
I’m sorry but these were the best ideas I could come up with.
so i guess the only thing that could work would be if people just stopped posting vile crap in the first place – probably no chance of that ever happening either, but it raises an interesting question in my mind.
If youtube regulates their content in an effort to be more responsible, will some other site that does not regulate their content get more hits ?
Which is where the question of government regulation comes in, so it would be done to everybody – but how far would it go?
Do kids now have to be banned from The Daily Skew now that you are posting this content as well?
I notice that there is no age verification at the entrance of your site.
What would be the right penalty for a site to pay for violation?
Could site administrators be sent to jail for posting offensive content?
Usually people who want to regulate what people see based on bad moral content are “social conservatives”.
I find these people strange because a lot of them talk about taking us back to the “good-ol-days” of the 1950s when tv shows had “moral values”and there were only a few tv stations with a lot of westerns on tv so the kids could watch people killing each other with guns…
moral values?
and then theres the political-correctness crowd.
who get offended mostly by perceived racist/sexist/homophobic comments,
and it is a big scandal every time some celebrity or media personality said the wrong thing so much that it becomes a major story – but with
so much of what they said bleeped out, you cant even hear what you’re supposed to be offended by.
How can I tell if I’m supposed to be offended by what was said?
should i just take their word for it?
The media tries so much to protect the publics fragile sensibilities that its patronizing.
so then, you have to go on the net to hear what was said, or see what the media refused to show as their ratings continue in a slow decline due to lack of interest as more people choose to surf the net to get the uncensored truth.
whether its “dog” the bounty hunter’s racism or Nick Berg being beheaded,
everything the “responsible” media refuses to show, the net will show uncensored.
so the net is the future and tv is the past because of this.
Its a brave new world.
The internet makes everything more accessible,the good and the bad and the ugly.
and just like tv or radio for every one good thing you see or hear, there are maybe 100 things that are crap, and some of it crosses a bad line.
but how do we live in a world where the adults want to see one thing and the demand creates an abundant supply of adult entertainment everywhere but we dont want kids to see it?
What do we do when kids live in the same world that adults do?
Maybe society can change but people cant.
Or is it the other way around?
I’m not sure anymore.
I guess what I’m trying to say is
freedom means you gotta take the bad with the good.
Its not that I dont care,its more like there are so many bad influences out there in all other forms of media that its hard for me to single out the internet as being any worse then the average episode of jerry springer.
Great post, R.A.W. Thanks for the alternate perspective.
I have a nasty headache right now, but I just want to want to expand upon my line of reasoning:
- I believe YOU should have the right to see Daniel Pearl’s head being chopped off, if you want. I just don’t want it so EASILY accessible for kids to see it, for someone to accidentally click on it, or for someone who can’t resist the temptation to click on it, and then feel sick after watching it.
- Some people can’t handle or don’t want to see The Truth about the dark side of reality- the grim and gritty world of killings, violence, loose women, etc. Some people are very impressionable. Pandora’s Box has been opened. The genie is out of the bottle. All content is available for anyone to see. And I don’t think it’s beneficial for society. Not everyone is like you, R.A.W. Society couldn’t exist if everyone was like you (or me, or Dark Truths, or Tony, or Danny or anyone else.) So although YOU and I can handle the racist jokes, and sadistic videos that used to be posted on ogrish.com. Unfortunately, there is no avoiding it anymore. Kids can see it.
- Ultimately, my decision to post links to the openly accessible youtube videos was used to prove my point- that the system is broken as it is. I’m showing the holes in youtube’s user-regulated methods. And it’s not my content; it’s youtube’s. I have no qualms with a future system that verifies age as soon as someone visits this or any other site. The bottom line is that the so-called internet community (including myself) can’t control or self-regulate content.
- Jerry Springer’s shows are horrible, they don’t benefit society in anyway, shape, or form. I actually lose intelligence when I watch it, especially since it’s scripted and planned. I don’t think it needs to be on TV in the morning for youngsters to watch it. I’m sorry if I’m coming off hypocritical or as a social conservative. Anyone that knows me knows that I have watched (and enjoyed) some of the sickest TV or internet videos of all time. I don’t enjoy being limited in what I can search for or what I can view, either. But like I said earlier, I don’t support corrupting our youth.
I read Watchmen when I was 9 years old- the scenes of a dog getting its brains blown out, and Rorsharch’s mother being a prostitute have been forever ingrained in my cerebellum. When I was 8, I read about a white anti-matter cloud that erases entire earths and super-heroes who had 50 years of history. I read, and cried, when Supergirl risked her life to save her cousin, and then was brutally murdered by the most heartless villain of all time. Stuff like that plays a part of who I am today. I’m a cynical, moody, distrustful son of a bitch sometimes. So when an 8 year-old today, can view pornography, be-headings, Nazism, etc one click away. I’m nervous about how those kids will end up.
-Your idea about having the computer in the living room is excellent.
Just to be clear –
I only brought up jerry springer as an example to prove that tv can be just as offensive, objectionable, and stupid as what is on the internet even though it is bleeped, regulated, and scripted – it is still just as noxious as the things that people dont want kids to see on the net, so how is tv any better?Jerry Springer might indeed be one of the dumbest shows ever created but if there is a demand for crap,that means its gonna be on.
Yes,most objectionable material on the net is not beneficial to society,
but the same could be said for television, movies, talk radio, reality shows, etc.
I dont like it either.
The only thing I disagree with you on is I think someone who cant resist the temptation to click on something that makes them feel sick after they saw it gets what they deserve – if they had fair warning.
I have done that myself.
Ive seen things I wish I had not, but it was my own fault and there is no one to blame but myself for that.
I somewhat agree with you
Im just trying to see this in a realistic way.
For example, we are talking about what should and shouldnt be on tv or the net and the fact of the matter is that it is, and probably will continue to be whether we like it or not.
also, even if there were internet regulations they would have to be the result of some sort of united-nation’s declaration of international law,
because as we all know, even if one country had strict regulations anybody could simply surf to any site in any other country that has none.
so this is a complicated issue and i dont think there are any easy answers to this.
Rafael’s thumbprint idea seemed to me to be the most practical.
Yes, R.A.W., any combination of thumb-print, a central database that can verify age, or ID is a step to help parents.
In terms of international stuff, yes, China blocks sites with certain IP addresses, and every country would have to vote on stuff.
It truly is an unanswerable situation, and the only thing parents can do now is have the TV and computer in the living room, and educate their youngsters about life and morality.
Besides the subjective content that may or may not be offensive, there is something that is not debatable, and that is the problems that craigslist creates. In addition to the recent REPORTED murder from that “self-regulated” site, there’s more illegal drugs and unsafe prostitution and gay bathroom sex orgies at malls going on than anyone can possibly imagine. Your young niece or nephew is two clicks away from getting murdered or raped.
On Myspace.com, another “self-regulated” site, murders are now becoming frequent. As you know, our government will only act when things get out of hand some more. Unfortunately, before the US government can impose light regulations to protect kids and teens from rape or death, there will be more causalities.