A really interesting piece in the Guardian about a film made by Beeban Kidron re: the ‘real world’ on the Internet, with some debates I’d like to read more deeply into … I certainly believe that the Internet is a ‘real’ place, and that the film-maker has captured what some children really do online, but by terming it “documentary” it gives the impression this is the norm – which I am not convinced about, based on the research that I’ve engaged with:
“Yes of course, all that “cloud” and “like” and “friend” and “google” and “twitter”. The nursery language makes it seem a safe Teletubby land where nothing bad could happen. I wanted to make it clear to the kids who bought into that that actually this is real, it is all mappable like an empire. Are we all comfortable with this? Shouldn’t we demand not only that it sound safe for our children to explore, but that it is safe? When you make such arguments you get the response from the billionaires that they just own the pipes that stuff comes through. That is completely at odds with the knowledge that these companies – Google and Facebook and the rest – routinely take our data and sell it on to advertisers. Their business is clearly content, data. We have to start asking why they are not being made responsible for it.”
Looking forward to seeing the film anyway!