Comments on: Warning to teens: The Internet is a public place

Two public service ads warn teens about the threats to putting photos and personal information online.

[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.