What are we doing?

Is it April 1st?  I had to wonder when I heard on the news this morning that Facebook has decided to allow videos of people being beheaded to be shown on its site.  I did the aural equivalent of a double take and turned up the radio, convinced that I must have misheard.  But no, sadly everything I heard was accurate.

Apparently Facebook did have a temporary ruling in place that blocked the showing of such scenes, but has decided to allow these decapitation videos again (or snuff movies as they used to be called) so that users can "be free to watch and condemn such content".

Laudable or laughable or just downright bonkers?  Have we become so immune to inhumanity, suffering and torture that we think it's somehow OK for it to be streamed on a social media site where most people turn for a bit of light gossip and a few holiday snaps?  Do we not believe that if children or vulnerable people have access to such sites then the content should be monitored?

What is wrong with this situation?  Er...quite a lot actually.  PM David Cameron has stepped into the fray branding Facebook "irresponsible" and saying it needs to "explain its actions" to worried parents.  I'm sorry but I don't want some spotty 21-yr-old FB employee "explaining" to me why he or she thinks I need to be able to view such content so that I have the "freedom" to  condemn it.

Why do we need to witness something in order to condemn it?  I know that paedophilia is abhorrent.  I do not need to see it in action to have that confirmed.  I also know that someone having their head cut off is indicative of an unlawful and not-very-pleasant situation and although it may pass for accepted retribution in some parts of the world, I do not need to see it to realise that it must be condemned.

The internet is a wonderful tool but its major downside is that it allows people, sat on their behinds in their own living rooms, to see stuff without any effort on their part whatsoever.  In the past if you had a strange urge to experience another culture in which decapitation was the norm, some effort would have been required.  You would have had to do some fairly detailed research to discover where this sort of practice took place.  Then you would have worked out how to get there arranging visas, vaccinations etc.  Then you would have had to earn (yes earn through having a job) the money and taken the time off to travel.  Once in situ you would  have (hopefully) gained some understanding of the country and its people, and then if you were "lucky" enough to witness the desired decapitation, it would have been horrific but at least you would have been able to put it into some sort of context.

But some numpty who's taken time off in between gaming and ordering pizza to surf the internet looking for weird stuff?  How is that right that they should be able to view something as deeply disturbing as the film that supposedly drew attention to Facebook's decision which was of a masked man murdering a woman, possibly in Mexico.  Nice.

This whole debate is symptomatic of the society we live in where some people think it's acceptable to film episodes on their mobiles and post them onto Facebook and other sites purely for the amusement of complete strangers.  It's voyeurism of the worst kind and it's happening all the time.  At one end of the spectrum there's the teen who points their phone over the cubicle door and snaps their mate on the loo, and at the other, the gang rape of a drunk girl.  There is little awareness from individuals who do this of the effect that it may have on the person being filmed.

We also seem to have conveniently forgotten that there are large numbers of primary school age children out there who (unbelievably) have a Facebook account.  There is supposed to be an age limit of 13 (still babies really) to set one up but I personally know of several much younger Facebookers.  Why they are allowed by their parents to set up an account I do not know, perhaps in some cases the parents simply aren't aware.  But as I'm always banging on to my own kids who, you will not be surprised to discover, DON'T have anything to do with FB (!) once you've seen something horrible you cannot 'unsee' it; it's imprinted on your brain forever.

Come on Facebook, show some initiative and take a stand against such vileness being streamed through your site.  I've said before that while I am very much anti-censorship I am also totally pro-child protection and sometimes we so need to sacrifice our "rights" to be all seeing in order to protect those who can't protect themselves.