WMF – Social networking, privacy and the press – Eve Salomon, Press Complaints Commission

We need to know how to motivate users to take privacy on board – gives example of 17 yr old son and Facebook.

Can a photograph not showing private behaviour be classed as private outside copyright issues? Even if material is private there can be good reasons to breach privacy, e.g. YouTube video of kids firebombing cargo train.

New questions of informed consent. 3rd party disclosure. Standards and fairness. Should ‘viral’ material be published? Can be good reasons for publication.

Responsibility shared between public, parents, sites. Make it easier for users to protect and pull down their material.

Basic self-regulation is flexible and responsible enough to cope with changing landscape. ENDS

Chris Bryant MP: I have left Gaydar, but I do have journalists as friends on Facebook and I use it for campaigning. More issues come to me from Facebook than from my surgeries in the constituency.

Internet gathers diaspora.

Ability for people to show world themselves without embarrassment has increased, so has prurience. Divergence between media which has become more judgmental, and society which has become less judgmental.

Media need to exercise same standards online as offline.