We all know that privacy online is a massive problem, with social networking
sites changing their privacy policy every other week or using incomprehensible jargon,
or games we play using our picture in their adverts and spamming all our
friends with coin requests and all sorts of things that just completely blow my mind. But that’s
old news; we’re now either accepting of it or savvy enough to thwart it.
But there is still something that really rattles my cage, that makes me do a scream that rattles the seeds inside the apples and probably, hopefully,
millions of other people; it’s when pictures of people are taken without their
knowledge or consent and deliberately posted online for us to mock. It’s the sneaky cyber bulling interweaving trend known as Stranger Shaming.
We’ve all laughed them; old embarrassing yearbook pictures, people
in Walmart wearing pyjamas or short shorts, someone falling over drunk or
caught making a ridiculous photobomb. Of
course they can be funny, but when does it cross a line? I don’t ever want to see my face going viral
with a tagline of “epic fail”, “who ate all the pies” or even “lol”!. That would break me. It's even creepy when it's something complimentary like "omg I need this girl's bag".
Looking at my friends list on Facebook or Instagram, people I know and
trust are posting pictures they have taken of someone for a cheap laugh. “This guy pissed himself on my bus this
morning”, “oh Gawd I can see up her skirt when she walks upstairs”, “lol, this
woman had a wardrobe malfunction”. It
makes me so sad, infuriated and disappointed.
What right do they have to do this to someone? What right do I have to see it?
Back in March a woman in Staffordshire needed to feed her baby. She found a quiet spot on some steps of a
closed building and breastfed her baby - then someone took a picture of her and
anonymously posted it to Facebook with the message “tramp”.
The photo did the rounds until one of her friends saw it and reported it
to her. Thankfully, she became proactive
in her retaliation which caused a media storm and a massive amount of support
for her. In fact, thousands
of people turned up to a rally in support of public breastfeeding! Brilliant.
While I think it’s great to see the support of breastfeeding in public,
I couldn’t get over the fact that the anonymous poster got away with trying to shame
this young mother online without her knowledge. It makes me feel all kinds of worry for the human race.
There are countless groups and websites that encourage you to share
photos for the purpose of laughing at someone. I’m not going to get into the labyrinth of revenge websites whereby you get back at an ex or enemy by
posting their private nude photos or address for everyone to abuse - the ones with paid
membership; that’s far too horrendous and obvious.
But there are hundreds of easily accessible groups like “women who eat
on the tube” which has approx. 15,000 members who are encouraged to take a
sneaky picture and share with details of the time it was taken, which tubeline
and what food was being eaten. OK, it's just a picture of someone eating but, crikey, what is the point?
The founder of the website thinks people wouldn’t be offended by the group if it had been started by a woman and that the “the feminist lobby will attack anything”. I think, Mr Tony Burke, that I was offended by the stupidity and ignorance of it before I knew who started it and that I feel deeply sorry for someone who ends up on that group without consenting to it. The group tagline is “subjects are embraced and cherished”, but the comments say otherwise. Burke says,
“Anyone who gets their knickers in a twist over that [having their photo taken on the Tube with food in hand] needs to check themselves a bit. Look, people just need to develop a sense of humour, and toughen up a bit.....If they were at home being photographed, that’s sinister,” he says. “They’re in a public place. That’s the risk that you take. Let’s not live in this ridiculous nanny state were nothing’s allowed to exist in case it upsets someone. It’s not like people are going to be humiliated or traumatised for years to come.” But, Mr Burke, you've provided a platform for someone to be humiliated or traumatised regardless of how long that lasts. Don't you see? It's not really "art" is it? Not when you also admit to it being "utterly pointless". *Eye roll*. Some people, eh?
The founder of the website thinks people wouldn’t be offended by the group if it had been started by a woman and that the “the feminist lobby will attack anything”. I think, Mr Tony Burke, that I was offended by the stupidity and ignorance of it before I knew who started it and that I feel deeply sorry for someone who ends up on that group without consenting to it. The group tagline is “subjects are embraced and cherished”, but the comments say otherwise. Burke says,
“Anyone who gets their knickers in a twist over that [having their photo taken on the Tube with food in hand] needs to check themselves a bit. Look, people just need to develop a sense of humour, and toughen up a bit.....If they were at home being photographed, that’s sinister,” he says. “They’re in a public place. That’s the risk that you take. Let’s not live in this ridiculous nanny state were nothing’s allowed to exist in case it upsets someone. It’s not like people are going to be humiliated or traumatised for years to come.” But, Mr Burke, you've provided a platform for someone to be humiliated or traumatised regardless of how long that lasts. Don't you see? It's not really "art" is it? Not when you also admit to it being "utterly pointless". *Eye roll*. Some people, eh?
In the very first instance, IMHO, people really need to be given the
opportunity to have those pictures removed. Furthermore, Emma
Carr, director of Big
Brother Watch, has called for a law to deter people from taking photos of
strangers. I wait with baited breath
for the result of that.
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