There are three key legal issues that need
to be explored when considering an individuals online reputation:
Issues of
defamation impact our online participation in two distinct ways, when acting
online we have a right not to be defamed and also a responsibility not to
defame others.
Ownership and
property rights, including issues of copyright, are often disputed or
disconsidered online and many people are unaware when they are relinquishing
the rights to their own material. And inversely, we often forget that material
sourced from elsewhere and then republished on social media is still subject to
standard laws of copyright and intellectual property protection.
Privacy is
increasingly difficult to maintain as we put more and more of our lives online,
the boundaries between the private and public spheres are being blurred and
issues of online control and legal literacy are making it even more difficult for people to manage their
online persona.
With people using platforms like Facebook
and twitter as a mechanism for connection to those closest to them, it become
difficult to comprehend that social media is a form of open publication. What
people would have once said in conversation over coffee to a close friend, may
now be posted on their Facebook wall. We have begun to broadcast everything;
from life events to photos of dinner, and from our opinion on politics to our
university timetable, everything is online. This means that there is a record
of everything- every photo, comment, tweet and ‘like’ is archived.
Another problem is that the laws of
defamation, contempt, intellectual property, confidentiality have always been
applied to journalists and those acting as part of the traditional media.
However, now that everyone has access to extensive content sharing these laws
that originally only applied to those in the industry of publication now apply
to everyone with access to a computer or smartphone and an internet connection.
For this reason, the complex laws which
have been actively considered by working editors, journalists, writers and
politicians now have to be understandable to everyone.
Julie Posetti, a journalist and assistant
professor at the university of Canberra was recently tangled up in a twitter
explosion and on a recent Radio National law report segment outlined the
problem:
“ When we have
situations where people who are very new to these mediums find themselves
saying something they might say in their lounge room but publishing it broadly,
and it might be terribly defamatory or terribly contemptuous. They find
themselves at the other end of a threat from a big corporation or a powerful
individual, what is the law going to do with that? We have a need for a lot
more communication about these issues and a lot more education about these
issues for the general public in particular”
It is not just the connection to the
internet that is creating these problems, but also the changing way that it is
being used. An Australian Law Reform Commission reporton Privacy Law and Practice, identified one of the key reasons for young
peoples differing attitudes to privacy compared to older Australians was as a
result of the online world, particularly online social networking,
“Until recently,
the internet was primarily a source of information. Today, however, it is used
as a means of communication and has beome an important part of social relations”
“One concern
about social networking is that it often involves participants disclosing
personal information to a worldwide audience. This concern is highlighted when
children and young people disclose personal information when participating in
online social networking, given their more limited capacity to understand the
consequences of disclosure of personal information in an online environment.”.
This limited capacity to understand the
potential dangers of online sharing is one aspect which we will be addressing.
It needs to be acknowledged that to adequately inform oneself of all your
rights and responsibilities online using the existing resources may be too
greater task for young people.
A clear, concise presentation of
information needs to be created. Making legislation accessible and
understandable, using case studies to show clear connections of cause and
effect, and how-to guides to simplify safety measures people should undertake.
No comments:
Post a Comment