Kids Suing Parents Over Facebook Photos

What Happens When Social Media Becomes a Family Diary?

In September an 18-year-old girl from Austria began legal proceedings against her own parents over what she says are embarrassing photos of her childhood. She claims the photos on Facebook have made her life miserable. According to her lawyer, the girl’s parents have posted hundreds of photos of her since 2009 without her approval.

The girl’s parents have refused to delete the images and have shared them with over 700 Facebook friends. Her father is claiming that every single image, including potty training, is his intellectual property. Their daughter wonders if her parents are more interested in “likes” than her mental and emotional well being. Austrian courts will hear the case in November, and now a new case in Canada has sprung up making the headlines.

 

Darren Randall from Calgary is also suing his parents for posting embarrassing baby pictures of him to social media for years.

“I had no say in my image being on the internet and now that I’m getting older these old pictures are ruining my reputation,” said Randall during his interview with This is That host Peter Oldring on CBC Radio.  

The 13 year-old is now asking for $350,000 and claims that it is a small price to pay for his humiliation. Can this now be called an extension of the art of  family photography? But, would we share those old photographs we have in a box stuck under the bed with people we don’t really know?  Now photography is the most popular medium of social communication leaving a digital memory capsule of everyone’s lives.

 

 

Posting photos on social media such as Facebook has become “the” place to archive digital family photos.  Parents are living through the lens of their smartphone rather than in the moment. What people do not realize is that Facebook never disposes of any content. I know people who have fought to get their old accounts wiped, and it seldom happens. Social Media’s ‘free’ service is just a way to get all your data, and you can be sure they’re still working on how they can monetize it– and it has become a growing market to sell people’s social media profile to employers, insurance companies and other organisations.

Historians learn a lot about the surrounding area by studying old family photographs as it opens a door to the past. A photograph keeps a moment from turning away, but are people now missing the whole point ? Remember that the the raison d’etre of Facebook is really to create a detailed marketing profile of every person on the planet. Like Vegas,what stays on social media stays on Google forever.

Want to see more? Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read.

Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in Hometown News

I Found My Email Address on the Ashley Madison Website

Yesterday I read an article in a major local newspaper about one of their reporters finding his name on the Canadian-founded Ashley Madison dating site. Apparently, they even had the newspapers email address for his contact information. The reporter could not figure out how they got it. Right–well I know why–because one of my long lost email addresses is also on that same list.

I signed up a few years ago with very little information and no credit card info to write a story I was doing for Open Salon. But then again, I was also on farmersonly.com and dateazombie.com for a short period of time also doing research. Please note, I take my writing very seriously and am fearless when I write a story. Even though I requested they remove my name from Ashley Madison’s email list three days after the story was written; (and never heard from them again) the email address is still there. Let that be a lesson, if you have something to hide, your history is never wiped clean on the internet.

So now that the cat is out of the bag—one only has to ask what self-righteous, morality-policing, “sin”-protesting preachers, politicians, and hypocrites will be on this list? Better entertainment could hardly be imagined! Do we really care if other people are having an affair? Who is anyone to judge? Some people are going to be shocked when they find out both their husband and wife are on the site!

Why don’t these “internet Robin Hoods” do something useful? Clear some debts, give us higher credit scores, give someone an A on their finals. Apparently, customers are very hurt that these hackers would betray their trust and loyalty by revealing such information. Well honey, the karma train has just rolled into the station. Why would you blast all your info on a website during a day and age when everything is easily leaked and hacked? When you sign up, you are taking that risk–it’s common sense. No pity for those who lead their lives with hormones and sex drives.

Thirty-five and a half MILLION users worldwide. Should we call this hacking terrorism? People aren’t breaking the law by using this site or owning these sites. The hackers are breaking the law because they disagree with the sites’ owners and content. As I found out when I was researching the site- it was nothing but a cesspool. I was actually appalled at some of the stuff I saw, and it takes a lot to shake my apple tree.

Did some of these users begin to see themselves making a bad mistake, walk back from the brink and have a new appreciation for their S/O? A straying mind, temporary marital strife, lack of perspective and too much free time could have landed many people signing up for the site before realizing it was a mistake. Many of those people will now be outed – and their lives potentially ruined. And they say gay marriage is hurting the institution of heterosexual marriage?

Cheating is morally wrong – but it isn’t illegal. It is grounds for divorce- but we will never know the back story of every person being outed and why they were on the site. But again, in reality, it was, and always will be cheating. The new motto is: if you were not on Ashley Madison, you don’t have to worry. If you were, get a divorce attorney if you can’t work things out. I am personally hoping Charlie Sheen will say it was him, take the rap, and everyone will just move on with their lives.

If you don’t want someone to find out what you are doing, don’t do it. If you’re dumb enough to cheat via a website and think you’re infallible, then you deserve it. Don’t have an affair then. Especially via the internet.

Buy Linda Secaspina’s Books— Flashbacks of Little Miss Flash Cadilac– Tilting the Kilt-Vintage Whispers of Carleton Place and 4 others on Amazon or Amazon Canada or Wisteria at 62 Bridge Street in Carleton Place

What Happens When Newspapers Finally Die and the Internet Reaches Capacity?

I needed to get some information from one of my past blogs and during a Google search turned up an essay that had been done by Assistant Professor Beth Garfrerick from the University of Alabama on how social information was distributed through the ages. I read a lot of small town newspapers from the past on a daily basis to try and get bits of information to piece local Carleton Place history together. Contrary to what some believe, it takes hours and sometimes days to get something interesting enough to entice readers. I refuse to document boring stuff; I want to do stories that are not your run of the mill.

A lot of my information comes from what Garfrerick calls “Ploggers”. Those were the local “newspaper print loggers” who played an important role in recording births, deaths and everyday happenings. If these were not online I could not write these blogs. The Almonte Gazette is online, and so are most city newspapers, but the Carleton Place Canadian/ Herald is not (there are files at our local library however). I rely a lot on the Carleton Place Herald social columns that were printed by other larger papers. This is not only the Ottawa Journal, as I also get a great deal from the Winnipeg Free Press as Carleton Place was a railroad town, and some folks moved out west.

I was pleased as punch that Professor Beth Garfrerick  quoted me from a story I wrote on page 12 of her essay:

“Others disagree. Canadian blogger Linda Seccaspina, posting July 10, 2012, on the zoomers.ca blog, believes that small-town newspapers continue to publish the news that most residents of those communities want to read. In * “I’ve Got a Secret – Small Town Newspapers,” she wrote, “Who does not want to know who got arrested at the local watering-hole or whose lawn-ornaments are missing that week? Even though large newspapers are losing money the local weekly small-town newspapers still manage to survive. Why? Because the local population depends on their weekly words and supports them.”

We still do depend on weekly words, but sad to say our newspapers have grown smaller, and they are burdened with excessive, but much needed advertising for their revenue.  Afternoon newspapers began to plunge as television grew and people could get their information faster watching the local news than reading a newspaper. If television was a blow then the internet was the nail in the coffin as people want their news now– not tomorrow.  If I can write two stories last week that attracted close to 17,000 readers in less than 36 hours how does a newspaper compete? If you can get the news for free, there is no need to pay for a newspaper subscription any longer.  Free listings on Craigslist and Kijiji also began to eat away at the want ads revenues. Instead of trying to entice readers back with new features, and columns, newspapers laid people off and got smaller.

So what happens now? We no longer keep photo albums up to date as they are all stored on our cameras and cell phones. Will Facebook keep a backlog of all our social back and forths? I can tell you I blogged for years on Open Salon (division of Salon.com) and once they closed down this year try and find anything I wrote years ago. A real prime example is the Library of Congress’s huge Twitter Archive fail.

So am I recording all this local history online for nothing? I wrote one book about Carleton Place local history and going to do another one in the next few months as I fear for words being lost. You can say what you want about the internet, but words can disappear in a moments notice.  There just isn’t enough bandwith. Hopefully, somewhere down the road someone might find a copy of one of my books in some old trunk and remember. With the decline in newspaper readership and not enough bandwith how do we keep things things alive– just for history’s sake.

*The article Garfrerick spoke about that I wrote was I’ve got a Secret Newspaper – Thankfully I got the words over here fast enough before Open Salon closed- but all the pictures are lost. If you notice the last social ad- there is a mention of the Dominion Springs. That is how we put together the location. If it had not been for the social columns of the newspapers all would be lost.

Buy Linda Secaspina’s Books— Flashbacks of Little Miss Flash Cadilac– Tilting the Kilt-Vintage Whispers of Carleton Place and 4 others on Amazon or Amazon Canada or Wisteria at 62 Bridge Street in Carleton Place

Has Journalism Turned Into Click Bait? – Linda Seccaspina – Open Salon

Has Journalism Turned Into Click Bait? – Linda Seccaspina – Open Salon.

The Day the Internet Disappeared — Linda’s Dreadful Dark Tales – Zoomer

 

The Day the Internet Disappeared — Linda’s Dreadful Dark Tales – Zoomer.

Upgrading The Human Error System – Zoomer

 

Upgrading The Human Error System – Zoomer.

Eat Pray Loving Tech Support in India – Zoomers

 

Eat Pray Loving Tech Support in India – Zoomers.

 

Last night at the stroke of midnight I lost my internet. Instead of clenching my fists and gritting my teeth I threw my hands up in the air and shut down my computer. I figured come morning the internet would be fine and life would carry on. Well, the sun rose without the internet and after rebooting a half-dozen times perspiration and palpitations made me realize I might need more help than pulling a plastic clip out of the modem.

Losing Sabine in My Other Facebook Inbox – Zoomers

 

Losing Sabine in My Other Facebook Inbox – Zoomers.

 

 

There is no question the last two weeks have been busy but on Saturday night the bottom fell out of my Facebook bucket. A reporter for the local EMC paper had requested to add a friend to the list of event participants and days later when asked, I could not find her Facebook PM.