It takes a village...or in the internet's case, a twisted, possibly pedophile village...

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

For Friday Fun last week, badlydrawnjeff included a link to the internet meme du jour -- namely, the viral video of Rebecca Black's autotuned vanity company production of the exceptionally banal song "Friday". Ms. Black has gotten quite a lot of exposure from what really is little more than a music video exercise equivalent of baseball fantasy camp. And, as seems to happen to people who get internet famous, she's been the subject of a lot of ridicule, mocking parodies, and an "operation" by 4chan's /b/ board.

Ms. Black is 13 years old, by the way.

/b/ is, to anyone paying attention to a lot of internet memes, a fairly merciless place. In recent years, they have been largely responsible for the escalation of events around 11 year-old Jessi Slaughter and the infamous cyberstalking and harrassment campaign against Boxxy. Rebecca Black, Jessi Slaughter and Boxxi are all connected by virtue of being tween-aged and teen-aged girls targetted by /b/ and turned into thoroughly mocked internet memes....and for having their personal information spread across the internet and used to continue stalking and harrassment.

Ha, ha, ha -- what a gas, you guys.

Now, I need to be fair. 100s of millions of people use the internet daily without harrassment. To Catch a Predator may highlight a very particular risk of the internet among vulnerable young women and /b/ may have some very high profile cases of stalking and harrassment under its belt -- but millions of teens use the internet daily and are NOT put at risk by the experience.

My questions are a little all over the place, and I apologize for that. I find it striking and disturbing that some of the most high profile memes of recent years center around humiliating teen-aged girls, and it raises a real question of institutional sexism on the internet.../b/'s history in particular is genuinely disturbing not because of the "there are no limits" approach to sophomoric humor, but because "there are no limits" appears to apply to how it treats human beings, particularly young girls.

Another question is focused on the social responsibility of the internet. There are laws about stalking and harrassment and legislators and prosecutors are awkwardly trying to figure out what, if any, tools they have that can be used to sanction the kind of behavior linked above.

But if there is one thing we do know about successful anti-bullying programs off of cyberspace, it is that the best ones are ones that exert social pressure and not just legal sanction on the bullying. In other words, it is not enough for authorities to punish bullies, the general social environment where bullying happens has to collectively protect the bullied and inflict social cost on the bullies. It has to be seen as unacceptable SOCIALLY.

Can such an environment ever be fostered on the internet? I am not generally a person who demands "What about the children?", yet I do believe that the care of the next generation is one that begins at home and is shared by the rest of responsible adults in society. Further, I am not expecting others to make up for my mistakes if I ever let my own children wander unsupervised all over the internet, but I also think that some of the net's "wild west" approach to freedom could use a few sheriffs.

Can the net ever acheive that for itself...or is it always going to be a case of "here be dragons"?

Comments

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Welcome to Human Nature.

Enjoy the ride, motherfucker.

[tridus.livejournal.com]

That he'd stop saying it wouldn't make it less true. The darker corners of the Internet are humanity unfiltered. We're not a pretty thing to behold.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

I don't think you should construe my comment as approval. Quite the opposite actually.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

You depress me.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Anonymity and thus insulation from consequences turns many people into assholes, or rather allows them to express thier inner-nastiness without fear of retribution.

That anonymity is also a fundamental aspect of the internet.

To answer your question, No I do not think such an enviroment can be fostered. While it is possible to build a civil community within the internet, doing so requires registration/moderation. Having Mods for the internet as whole would violate the basic principals on which it is based.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

...and that's a good thing.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

That anonymity is also a fundamental aspect of the internet.



And yet groups like /b/ violate that when they deliberately expose private information -- notably of young girls -- for stalkers to use.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Going to agree with this.

[tridus.livejournal.com]

I believe Penny Arcade said it best (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/):

[mrsilence.livejournal.com]

That sounds legendary.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

My questions are a little all over the place, and I apologize for that. I find it striking and disturbing that some of the most high profile memes of recent years center around humiliating teen-aged girls, and it raises a real question of institutional sexism on the internet.../b/'s history in particular is genuinely disturbing not because of the "there are no limits" approach to sophomoric humor, but because "there are no limits" appears to apply to how it treats human beings, particularly young girls.

I think that, if you think it's about teenage girls in particular, that it misses the boat a bit. We can look all over the place for different memes that have caught fire, and they have very little regard for race, sex, or gender over the years, from Numa Numa to that guy who's wearing the terrible hat and turned into an image macro. It seems to be that they focus more on what's bad than what's proper.

For what it's worth, I didn't realize Rebecca Black was 13 until someone here - maybe you - commented about it. Then again, I'm not a huge fan of some of the things that have spawned from it, so am I an enabler or an innocent?

Can such an environment ever be fostered on the internet? I am not generally a person who demands "What about the children?", yet I do believe that the care of the next generation is one that begins at home and is shared by the rest of responsible adults in society. Further, I am not expecting others to make up for my mistakes if I ever let my own children wander unsupervised all over the internet, but I also think that some of the net's "wild west" approach to freedom could use a few sheriffs.

Not until we re-examine what it means to be "public," "private," and what constitutes anonymity, and largely stop judging people by what's written about them by other people. The internet right now doesn't need more police, it needs more perspective, and we're still in that growing pains stage.

In an era where Rick Santorum can't have his name Googled by a student without X-rated material being the first link tells us that a) we need to grow up a bit and b) we need to keep the internet in its proper context. A won't happen until B does.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I didn't realize Rebecca Black was 13 until someone here - maybe you - commented about it.

How old did you think she was? She looks 12 or 13.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately the Internet is semi-anonymous to the point that people who behave like decent, rational human beings on the Internet are exceptional enough that it tends to be pointed out. I can't see any means to fix that with an Internet Department for the Promotion of Civility and the Prevention of Hostility.

The video version of the above comment:

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Much as I'd love to see an Internet where people behave like ordinary, regular, people used to actually speaking and interacting with other people, the GIFT will always, without exception, apply even when you least expect it.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

http://community.livejournal.com/talk_politics/938986.html?thread=72515050#t72515050

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Heh. Coming in at about 100 comments I was waaayyyy too late to make this comment ;P

[kinvore.livejournal.com]

I'd like to extend beyond this and note /b/'s appetite for vigilante justice, internet style. There's been numerous incidents where a video is posted of someone abusing an animal. The rage this can inspire in /b/ is borderline ironic (considering the horrific things they laugh at). They've been known to track these people down and post their personal information, leading to all kinds of harassment.

Yes there are those who deliberately try to instigate what they call a "shitstorm", but those are often met with the standard NYPA (Not Your Personal Army) responses. There's no telling what will upset that hive.

We just need to accept one simple fact: we can't get rid of /b/ because they invented caturday. It pretty much makes my week.

[jerseycajun.livejournal.com]

Your comment brings to mind the inredible rapidity with which new, localized cultural mores have formed since the internet age first dawned.

Post pics making fun of the Japanese tsunami? Cool!

Post pics of people abusing animals? You sick %$#@!!!

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Chocolate Rain was the same way, where was /b/ then? Honestly, this is just bitterness over Orange County kids being born into wealth and being able to do whatever the fuck they want no matter how stupid and uninteresting it is. What's the goal here? To make her feel bad for the video? There's no vigilantism to be had, here.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

I think the response to her video is more of a gut-level social-existential revulsion to the mindless materialist outlook advocated by a child. The video presents a social picture that most people find revolting on some level, and it's a child leading the way. The children have been assimilated. They have become media-dominated consumers. We find it horrifying. We look at what we have wrought, a promising child blathering idiotically about finding a car seat, and we hates it. Yes we hates it, precious. The extreme reaction to the video is an externalized hate, which allows us to revile and ridicule this state of affairs without condemning ourselves personally.

We look at the singer and think, "My God, what have we done?" But only subconsciously.