Social Media and Privacy

The article, When Rape Goes Viral, discussed the negative and positive effects that posting images and videos of sexual assault online has. Some victims of sexual assault actually benefited from their offenders posting their assaults online because it helped prove that the assault actually happened. In other cases, it made things worse. Once you post an image or video online it is there forever. I personally don't think it's right for someone to post images or videos of sexual assaults online, whether you'd doing it to raise awareness or because you're a sick human being that thinks that it's alright to do so. Images like these are extremely personal and can ruin someone's reputation. Several of the stories discussed in the article ended in suicide. 

I agree that in some circumstances posting these horrible images and videos can actually be a good thing because it can help prove your case happened, but what happens to the people whose cases aren't proven to be true? These people have to deal with the fact that they were assaulted and then deal with the fact that it is posted online for the world to see. It is something they have to live with for their entire life. Sometimes things posted online aren't even reported or taken seriously. One girl in the article talked about how she witnessed her peers watch a video of a girl being sexually assaulted and when she reported it to her school, they did nothing about it. 

Social media sites should immediately flag images and videos that are posted that contain sexual content. This would insure that sexual assaults and other traumatic events are not posted on the internet for the world to see. Once these images are posted, anyone can save them and share them. Personally, it's something I think social media websites should take more seriously and try to prevent.