Warning to teens: The Internet is a public place

Two important, if somewhat cliche, online public service videos warn teenagers about the dangers of putting photos and personal information online. My question is why it took so long for someone to come up with an educational effort to help kids understand the privacy implications of sharing their images and lives with the world online, something many of them do every day?

The videos can be viewed on the Google Blogoscoped blog. Sponsored by the Ad Council, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Project Safe Childhood in the U.S. Department of Justice, they are part of a Think Before You Post ad campaign.

In the first ad, a blond, innocent-looking teenager in a pink blouse and jeans is leaving her school with friends and keeps getting comments from men she doesn't know--attention that quickly turns from flattering to scary. A football coach says, "Love the new tattoo, Sarah." A creepy movie theater ticket taker asks her: "Hey Sarah, what color underwear today?" And a tattooed busboy wants to know when she's going to "post something new."

In the second ad, another girl, this one brunette but also wearing a pink shirt (the color of innocence and chastity apparently) pins a sexy photo of herself on the school bulletin board. Throughout the day boys yank it down, only to have another copy reappear to the sound of a mouse click. After copies get passed around in class, the girl regrets her action and tries to take the photo down. But a new one just keeps reappearing, like an after-school special about the Internet but with a Twilight Zone flavor. "Once you post your image online you can' take it back. Anyone can see it, family, friends, anyone," a narrator says as the school janitor snatches a copy of the photo.

[rosscbrown]

typo

The paragraph that begins "The blogs, which can be..." should read "The videos, which can be..."

Also, all the ads, (print, television and audio) can be viewed here: http://tcs.cybertipline.com/videos.htm

[jones_8099]

This is odd...

This is odd so basically they're trying to teach personal
responsibility. But yet the same reasoning isn't applied when a girl
goes out dressed in reveling clothes. I mean its the same principle,
if you show off your body your going to get reactions you don't
want. So why are we teaching web responsibility, but yet when a
girl goes out dressed like a **** and a guy makes a rude comment
to her its his fault? I'm not saying the guy is right, it just seems like
the same personal responsibility should apply in real life also.

[ShineCC]

You're missing the point

It's more than personal responsibility that they are trying to teach. They are trying to remind kids that once an image or post goes online, it's there forever because anyone can repost it if they copied it. Also, you can't control who sees it or where someone might distribute it.

If a girl goes out in reveling [sic} clothes, she controls where she goes and can always go home to change if she realizes that the outfit is inappropriate. Generally no one will take a picture without her knowing while she's wearing it. (Yes, I understand that many do it without letting someone know.) If she's posted a pic of herself online in the same revealing clothes, the pic can be posted again by ANYONE, not just her.

It doesn't matter if the revealing pic was posted online or the girl is wearing revealing clothes, the comments are still the fault of the person making them. The point was that she wasn't aware until the comments that people who she really hadn't intended to see her dressed in that outfit had seen her.

Teenagers tend to think that nothing can happen to them and that they know everything. In this case, using humor in a public service video is a wonderful way to remind them that they never know who is looking at their pics and posts online.