Youtube is out of control?
Posted by: Sofia Zissi in 2009, Blog, General: arts/music/other Add comments
Hundrends of users everyday upload videos that shouldn’t be allowed to be published. Adult fights, violence, hooliganism, drug use, racist videos promoting dangerous ideas are on the rise. How many times have you found yourself surfing and ending up in a nasty show with which only a mentally ill person can get fun? Personally I believe that the worst thing is the comments underneath the videos. I have seen youtube account holders who don’t even have a video uploaded in their list, and instead they use it only for writing comments.
It is possible to flag/report a dangerous video so that the administrators will delete it and a lot of users, including me, do that. Yes I have flagged a lot of undoubtedly dangerous videos but I still find them on. What is really happening? Is the huge number of youtubers a good excuse? If yes, then a solution must be found immediately.
As we can see Youtube is not strict at all. The same people would find their accounts deleted on Myspace or anywhere else. No one can stop a person from sending offensive comments and only the account holder can delete them. Since youtube doesn’t reveal personal data we cannot pin out the IP address of the offender.
Unfortunately this phenomenon looms large not only between the people of the same circle with the same sick ways of expression. Lately they have expanded their action by not keeping their behavior limited in their own society but they abuse everyone on their way. The reason… maybe they have no ability to sustain conversation?… The worst is when they insult people from different cultural backgrounds. This could be extremely negative for artists. Some of them work very hard and they deserve something better of an annoying visitor who unfairly wants to abuse them. I have the choice to keep or delete a comment and I can block the unwanted user, however they are coming back by setting up another account or they keep multiplying.
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“I find people comment a lot, but often in a negative way without actually doing any research into what they are watching”
Musician from London |
The anonymity: As I mentioned before no user’s IP address can be found on youtube. It is absolutely anonymous and that explains the reason why there are so many troubles. Maybe some people have excellent insulting skills by hiding themselves behind their keyboards. Some could say “why do you pay so much attention to a fool, just delete his/her comments, hit the block button and you will be fine”. However the fact I can get rid somebody who is insulting me is not sufficient because this person is still free to spread his malevolence in youtube and create groups of like-minded people. It is not rare to see comments that threaten the life of a person. In real life this could be the start of a serious lawsuit.
I find it useful to post a few opinions of some friends of mine regarding youtube in general. I decided not to publish their names: 1) “I am nervous of it too… I find people comment a lot, but often in a negative way without actually doing any research into what they are watching” Musician from UK, London…. 2) “The very people who were the foundation of Youtube will begin dropping out, I have already lost a few Youtube friends who have closed their accounts……sadly, it is a very strong analogy to what is happening in government and politics” Travel agent from USA, New York. 3) “Oh… I hate all these racist comments” Publisher from USA, Austin. 4) “I don’t use Youtube much and when I do I check out film and tv clips. However i heard about the porn, violence, racism and other negative things on there and I was amazed that it’s not checked or regulated thoroughly. I never thought it was like that!” Student from UK, Edinburgh…
Some freedom of speech supporters would say “If you don’t like the videos, don’t watch them” or “No one forces you to use youtube, go anywhere else”. In fact, a lot of times I had to confront this type of aggressive reply due to my caustic judgment. It’s very well understandable, I am always free to close my account and put this web page in a black list. However there is something that these youtube lovers need to understand. “My freedom starts where yours ends”, which means, use your freedom but respect other’s decisions. Can they explain where is this freedom of speech when somebody thinks he/she has the right to post nonsense on my channel? I am not talking about offering constructive criticism which must always be welcomed but when someone uses offensive language then there is a trespassing of freedom. Apart from that, not only the users who own a youtube account are exposed to inappropriate materials but everyone and especially children. What could stop them watching a fight video for example by clicking the “confirm date of birth” button (as sometimes Youtube requires for adult videos)?
According to psychology the environmental influences are very important for the development of a child while the very early influences can be crucial for its personality and future growth. Children who grow up in an unhealthy environment can end up adopting aggressive behavior. How an environment is healthy when a child can watch in 5mins “how we can create a bomb”? How dangerous tool youtube can be when a video like this has about 12.000 views? Even if the parents try to restrict their children using the internet without their supervision, nothing can stop a child from ending up by accident to an inappropriate video.
This may sound very much like a campaign against youtube. I suppose that I made it well understood that the problem is not “youtube” as an idea, but the lack of control of it based on the fundamental rules of social communication. I don’t support censorship at all, I strongly believe that all the opinions must be available in some way, but our rights are not unlimited.
In the end I hope that the people will someday realize what is good and what is bad not because of the law and order, but using their own judgment and common sense. If this sounds utopic, then I prefer to close my eyes to the future of this part of the young generation. At least we should be able to criticize the dangerous people and isolate them instead of being an apathetic audience without taking action at all. I wish that this day is not far…
Tuesday 10 of February 2009
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July 18th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Yes I agree, Youtube has ended up the toilet of internet.
February 7th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
I absolutely agree. Youtube is out of control. The worst is not only the videos but he comments below. I don’t think the big number of users is a good excuse. Myspace has the same or more but it’s very strict. They have to do something, especially to protect minors.