Facebook and the Law

Police in Victoria have successfully served an intervention order on Facebook. This shows some of the changes brought about by digital media, especially social networking which has become more or less ubiquitous in recent years. This also highlights the case of internet bullying and harassment. The order was served after the police had made significant attempts to track down the perpetrator without any results.

The order was served by way of a video from the Senior Constable, talking directly to the accused, on their Facebook home page. VicPolice media officer, Katie Hall, states “Police will always pursue traditional means to enforce the law and to protect the community – but we won’t shy away from innovative methods to achieve positive outcomes, either.” The video below shows the order that was served via Facebook.

 

 

This is certainly an interesting case and touches on issues of online privacy and harassment. This posting relating to online bullying highlights the difficulty in escaping harassment online. Throughout this blog I have talked about some of the more positive aspects of digital media, and it is unfortunate that some negative aspects have also arisen. This will be my final formal post on this blog and I’d like to say thanks for taking the time to have a read!

This is the Internet

The internet provides great entertainment and yet most people don’t really understand how exactly it works. Warning: The clip below from The IT Crowd doesn’t actually explain anything.

I thought it made sense to post a YouTube clip for this post as I seem to have been catching up on watching funny/weird/strange clips over the past couple of weeks. It’s great that this can all be shared so easily and I wonder if the ‘elders of the internet’ ever imagined how it would eventually be used. And just in case you were wondering, here is a sample of the ‘Top 25 YouTube Videos of all Time’.

How we spend our time on the web

I have been reading some interesting articles on how people spend their time on the internet. When the internet was first introduced to the world it quickly became a tool for communication and sharing information. Now in 2010, the internet plays a role in just about every business, non-profit society and organisation, and individuals life.

Some of the statistics reported by the Huffington Post relating to internet use by Americans showed that in a single month, a web user visits 2,646 sites and logs on 57 times – that’s a lot of information to be digesting! The report also highlighted the ever increasing popularity of social networking sites, with 70% of American internet users engaging in social networking. While in Brazil, a huge 90% of active internet users participate in social networking.

Another report in the Tech Chronicles of the San Francisco Chronicle reported how people are spending less time emailing and more time instant messaging. The report goes on to state that “In the past four years, people have been spending 37 percent more time getting news and entertainment online and less time communicating and making purchases online”.

Another article on TechPaparazzi listed the top internet brands – by percentage of online user visitors – with Google at 82%, followed by MSN/Bing (on 62%), Facebook (54%), Yahoo (53%), Microsoft (48%) and YouTube (47%).

Finally, this article published on TheOnlineMom highlights the increasing diversity of web users outside of the tech-obsessed younger generations. It shows that social networking rates higher than online gaming, internet and emailing in a ranking of the top ten sectors by share of US internet time.

These articles show an interesting shift away from simple emailing and data sharing, to more complex forms of internet usage. It also highlights the increasing popularity of social networking and the increasing desire for individuals not just to participate online, but to have an ‘online profile’ that is shared with the virtual community.