And you thought it was a private conversation?

[A Desert Rose]

http://mobilemomentum.msn.com/article.aspx?aid=12

I have lots of comments on this story... what about you?

 

[lorddragonwolf]

the link does not work for me.

 

[A Desert Rose]

the link does not work for me.

Smile, You're on Candid Phone Camera
The Internet has made lapses in behavior more embarrassing
By Philipp Harper
Special to MSN Email this to a friend.

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As if we needed help making fools of ourselves, the Internet has taken this all-too-human propensity and turbocharged it, magnifying our missteps and screw-ups in ways no one could have imagined just a few years ago. What once were quietly embarrassing events — you name it — now are given a public currency that mortifies.

Consider: Last year at one of the Midwest's tonier prep schools, a 14-year-old girl was persuaded by her older boyfriend (pressured, say her parents) to take sexually explicit photos of herself and then transmit them to him via the Internet. Boys being boys, the recipient of this misguided ardor e-mailed the snaps to a few of his close friends, who, boys being boys … well, you get the idea.

When officials at the school learned of this amour less-than-propre, they gave the boot to the young couple and to two additional male students whose viewing of the images could be confirmed. But if the carnage seems to have been limited, it really wasn't.

Word got out and there were front-page stories in the local newspaper. There followed, too, the inevitable lawsuits. As to the number of eyeballs (to use Net speak) captured by the images, the girl's mother asserts the photos made it into the great cyber river and were spread far and wide.

Eye See You
Now, ask yourself this: What would have been the chances in pre-Web days of the affair getting so far out of control?

Would the young lady have been as likely to hand over the images if she'd had to do just that, hand them over, as opposed to taking a deep breath, closing her eyes, and hitting "send"? Probably not.

And supposing she had given the incriminating photos to her insistent boyfriend. What are the chances they would have circulated so widely? Virtually nil..

It's bad enough when willful stupidity becomes a personal Chernobyl. But it's even worse when the victim truly is a victim, someone laid low not by a lapse in his or her own judgment but through the bad or careless intentions of someone else.

How does that happen, you ask?

Enter the cell phone camera, a device that not so long ago could have existed only in the fecund imagination of Q, supreme gadgeteer and outfitter of James Bond and other denizens of Her Majesty's Secret Service. Easily concealed, innocuous looking — it's main purpose is not as a camera, after all — the cell phone camera is becoming known more for its misuse than use.

On the market for just a couple of years, the camera phone promises to be ubiquitous. Acceptance of the technology so far has been most rapid in Asia, which by one reckoning accounted for 80 percent of camera phone sales in the final quarter of 2002. Western Europe followed with 13 percent, while North America lagged far behind at 2.3 percent.

But American consumers figure to close the gap. U.S. factory-to-dealer shipments of camera phones, which numbered 6.3 million units in 2003, are on track to double this year and then reach nearly 20 million units in 2005, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

One reason for the accelerating adoption of the phones is price, which is following the model of most other consumer technologies and declining rapidly, from as high as $400 when camera phones first became available to below $100 now. Consumers who find that still too high have only to wait because prices will continue to fall.

Use and Abuse
Of course, the allure of camera phones extends beyond economics. The devices are supremely convenient, allowing users to record events, people, and objects seamlessly, with minimal interruption to their daily activities.

But make no mistake, the camera phone is also a handheld mischief maker, one that seems to have tickled the funny (or naughty) bones of countless users. Which would explain the proliferation of Web sites devoted to the embarrassing, risqué or often plain pornographic images captured by amateur auteurs.

Any Hollywood starlet who swings her legs out of a low-slung sports car, revealing a flash or more of lingerie in the process, can pretty much assume that a snapshot of her unmentionables will be posted somewhere on the Web before the sun again sinks into the Pacific. Ditto the college student who, in a rum-induced fit of joie de vivre, sheds her top (or worse) at some beachside bacchanal.

In such cases the potential for embarrassment and personal anguish is high. In others, when, say, the camera phone is wielded by a disgruntled employee or corporate spy bent on espionage, the costs are economic.

Whatever the picture taker's motivation, preventing abuse is difficult because the picture-taking device is disguised (as a phone) and easily concealed. So what to do?

Responses so far are all over the map. Legislators, predictably, want to legislate, and proposed measures banning camera-phone abuse now float around several statehouses and the nation's capitol.

Is Big Brother Watching?
The private sector, its eye on the bottom line, has responded more resolutely. Proprietors and promoters associated with venues as varied as gyms and strip clubs, fashion shows and concerts, have taken a zero-tolerance approach and simply banned cell phones from their premises.

Corporate America, too, seems to favor such an approach, fearing that employees might use the devices against one another or against the company. However, the larger the enterprise, the tougher it is to enforce an outright ban. As the information technology consulting firm Gartner Inc. points out in a recent report, by 2006 80 percent of the cell phones sold will come equipped with built-in cameras, making it impractical if not impossible for a company with thousands of workers to keep the phones out of the workplace.

Ultimately, the most effective policing will be done by the camera phone owners themselves, relying on common decency and teachings like the Golden Rule to guide their behavior. Or not.

It may be that after decades of fearing surveillance and control by a central government, we are about to discover that the real danger to our society lies in our own incivility. It may be that when we meet Big Brother, we will discover that he is us.


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Philipp Harper is a free-lance writer who lives in south Georgia. He has written about business, the economy and politics for national and regional publications. Windows Mobile Momentum is a special report from MSN.

 

[NemoAlia]

Okay, I have a camera phone (a wedding present to myself). But it would just never occur to me to do that sort of mean-spirited stuff.

I mean, unless somebody had really pissed me off. In which case, I'm sure I could make them regret it with or without a camera phone.

Guess this guy's right -- we'll be policing ourselves.

 

[lorddragonwolf]

leave it to someone to misuse something that everyone uses. but theis article does make sense.

 

[A Desert Rose]

Okay, I have a camera phone (a wedding present to myself). But it would just never occur to me to do that sort of mean-spirited stuff.

I mean, unless somebody had really pissed me off. In which case, I'm sure I could make them regret it with or without a camera phone.

Guess this guy's right -- we'll be policing ourselves.

I agree with you completely. That was the first thing I thought of... it would never be in my mind to do something like that to anyone. But then, I've never been a hormone-driven teenage boy, either... ThankYa Jeeeeeeesus. LOL

 

[lorddragonwolf]

I agree with you completely. That was the first thing I thought of... it would never be in my mind to do something like that to anyone. But then, I've never been a hormone-driven teenage boy, either... ThankYa Jeeeeeeesus. LOL

just call it boys being boys. kids now adays are starting younger and younger.


i am following you rose.

 

[A Desert Rose]

just call it boys being boys. kids now adays are starting younger and younger.


i am following you rose.

No... I'm following YOU!


And that's the shame of it... a 14 year old is a child and should still be one. No one should take that wonderful feeling of being a child away nor should they be rushed into being an adult. They are not equipped, in a myriad of ways, to deal with adult issues such as sex.

 

[lorddragonwolf]

No... I'm following YOU!


And that's the shame of it... a 14 year old is a child and should still be one. No one should take that wonderful feeling of being a child away nor should they be rushed into being an adult. They are not equipped, in a myriad of ways, to deal with adult issues such as sex.

yes and what worse is that some kids pick it up from older siblings or by watching the wrong shows. we are starting to regulate what our son watches on tv after a few things he has said to us.

 

[A Desert Rose]

yes and what worse is that some kids pick it up from older siblings or by watching the wrong shows. we are starting to regulate what our son watches on tv after a few things he has said to us.

That's the sign of good parenting... monitor, communicate and monitor some more.

My girlfriend took the time to check her sons computer the other day and found, in her words, "more than she ever wanted to know." She was shocked and more than a little dismayed. And she has since become the computer policewoman at her house.

 

[lorddragonwolf]

That's the sign of good parenting... monitor, communicate and monitor some more.

My girlfriend took the time to check her sons computer the other day and found, in her words, "more than she ever wanted to know." She was shocked and more than a little dismayed. And she has since become the computer policewoman at her house.

thats the best way to do it.

 

[Queen Bee]

Smile, You're on Candid Phone Camera
The Internet has made lapses in behavior more embarrassing
By Philipp Harper

..... Any Hollywood starlet who swings her legs out of a low-slung sports car, revealing a flash or more of lingerie in the process, can pretty much assume that a snapshot of her unmentionables will be posted somewhere on the Web before the sun again sinks into the Pacific. Ditto the college student who, in a rum-induced fit of joie de vivre, sheds her top (or worse) at some beachside bacchanal.

In such cases the potential for embarrassment and personal anguish is high. In others, when, say, the camera phone is wielded by a disgruntled employee or corporate spy bent on espionage, the costs are economic.

Whatever the picture taker's motivation, preventing abuse is difficult because the picture-taking device is disguised (as a phone) and easily concealed. So what to do? .......

Er, keep your clothes on?

Given the following scenarios -- A 14 year old child providing nudie photos for her boyfriend, starlets flashing beaver, drunken "Girls Gone Wild" spectacles -- Harper thinks it's the camera phone users who lack common decency and are a "danger to society?" Interesting distortion.

 

[AngelicAssassin]

Ultimately, the most effective policing will be done by the camera phone owners themselves, relying on common decency and teachings like the Golden Rule to guide their behavior. Or not.

Where were the parents, on both sides of the relationship, before this happened?

 

[Etoile]

I don't think camera phones are to blame at all. Webcams can do the exact same thing.

I used to work for iFriends. I'm sure there are people out there with saved snaps of me from that. It doesn't really bother me, though. For one thing, I'm over 18. (This case is child pornography, which is a whole new ballgame.) But when I signed up to do it, I knew that the pictures could be saved. If she didn't know how the Internet worked that would be one thing, but surely she knew he could share the pictures.

 

[lorddragonwolf]

I don't think camera phones are to blame at all. Webcams can do the exact same thing.

I used to work for iFriends. I'm sure there are people out there with saved snaps of me from that. It doesn't really bother me, though. For one thing, I'm over 18. (This case is child pornography, which is a whole new ballgame.) But when I signed up to do it, I knew that the pictures could be saved. If she didn't know how the Internet worked that would be one thing,



but surely she knew he could share the pictures.

I agree the phones are not to blame .With your last line she probably thought she could trust him to not share the pics. Her thinking would be he loves me he will never hurt me by sharing the pics with anyone. Garuntee the prick used the line come on baby i wont show them to anyone at all.

 

[A Desert Rose]

Smile, You're on Candid Phone Camera
The Internet has made lapses in behavior more embarrassing
By Philipp Harper....

We can talk about bad or lazy parenting, but that is not really the point of this column, as I see it. There will always be people who use poor judgement and opportunists who will jump on that. There will always be parents who don't pay enough attention to their children and what they are doing.

The opening scenario is sad and there is plenty of blame to go around regarding those 2 children.

I think the real point is that we need to learn to keep up with the fast pace of the technological advances in a moral and ethical way. And some of use are not doing that. As someone else said, policing ourselves will be the fundamental answer. The idea of the government policing another piece of our personal property, frankly, scares me.

 

[AngelicAssassin]

We can talk about bad or lazy parenting ... I think the real point is that we need to learn to keep up with the fast pace of the technological advances in a moral and ethical way. And some of use are not doing that. As someone else said, policing ourselves will be the fundamental answer.

With one reserve because i didn't pick up who actually owned the phone, i'll agree on your real point. However, sorry to be a bastard, that child just learned a lesson in the school of hard knocks. A 14 year old has no business running around with a camera capable phone if the parents haven't instilled some personal pride and reserve in the child/young adult.

We've had cars readily available to the general populace since Ford turned the assembly line into a viable means of reducing the cost to an affordable level for John Q. Public. You still have to be 16 in most states to drive one. In the 50s, if i'm not mistaken, to be or not to be a virgin hit its first hurdle in "Lovers' Lane." i'm pretty sure parents that cared raised an eyebrow and thoroughly "briefed" any "child" of theirs before said child went on a date with a boy with a car.

Sure, i agree the boy was a cad. But i think the girl a bit naive, and the parents on both sides a bit lax as well.

 

[A Desert Rose]

With one reserve because i didn't pick up who actually owned the phone, i'll agree on your real point. However, sorry to be a bastard, that child just learned a lesson in the school of hard knocks. A 14 year old has no business running around with a camera capable phone if the parents haven't instilled some personal pride and reserve in the child/young adult.

We've had cars readily available to the general populace since Ford turned the assembly line into a viable means of reducing the cost to an affordable level for John Q. Public. You still have to be 16 in most states to drive one. In the 50s, if i'm not mistaken, to be or not to be a virgin hit its first hurdle in "Lovers' Lane." i'm pretty sure parents that cared raised an eyebrow and thoroughly "briefed" any "child" of theirs before said child went on a date with a boy with a car.

Sure, i agree the boy was a cad. But i think the girl a bit naive, and the parents on both sides a bit lax as well.

And I have no where on this thread argued that point with you or anyone else. In fact, I said... there is plenty of blame to go around regarding this incident.

 

[AngelicAssassin]

And I have no where on this thread argued that point with you or anyone else. In fact, I said... there is plenty of blame to go around regarding this incident.

Unfortunately, the girl won't get her dignity back; the boy, deservedly has a reputation problem if not a record when this is done; we'll get more legislation on the books, and the only ones that gain are the lawyers in the settlement.

How many states or major cities now have laws on the books dictating when a cell phone can be used in a moving vehicle?

 

[A Desert Rose]

Unfortunately, the girl won't get her dignity back; the boy, deservedly has a reputation problem if not a record when this is done; we'll get more legislation on the books, and the only ones that gain are the lawyers in the settlement.

As for who gains? You are absolutely right on the mark!

How many states or major cities now have laws on the books dictating when a cell phone can be used in a moving vehicle?

Far too many. If I were a google queen I could probably have that information. Again, it's government knowing what is best for us.

 

[AngelicAssassin]

Far too many. If I were a google queen I could probably have that information. Again, it's government knowing what is best for us.

And fuck 'em ... if i've got a maniac under the influence of road rage in one of those states on my ass, call 911, or (*)(Whatever the hell it is in your state) for the highway patrol to holler for help, and get in an accident, what do you want to bet i need Johnny Cochran to keep my ass out of jail or the poor house?

 

[A Desert Rose]

And fuck 'em ... if i've got a maniac under the influence of road rage in one of those states on my ass, call 911, or (*)(Whatever the hell it is in your state) for the highway patrol to holler for help, and get in an accident, what do you want to bet i need Johnny Cochran to keep my ass out of jail or the poor house?

Nodding in total agreement. And so the victim (you) becames the perpetrator.

 

[AngelicAssassin]

Nodding in total agreement. And so the victim (you) becames the perpetrator.

No, that would be anyone else.

i plan on driving the MF off the road ... http://www.1st-vets.org/forum/images/smiles/icon_twisted.gif