1. Reputation and risk online:
Sexts, derps & rock ‘n’ troll
MAC309
robert.jewitt@sunderland.ac.uk

2. Overview
 Risk
 Reputation
 Facebook and privacy
 Revenge porn

3. Risk-based society
 ‘concerned no longer exclusively with
making nature useful, or with releasing
mankind from traditional constraints, but
also and essentially with problems resulting
from techno-economic development itself …
Questions of the development and
employment of technologies … are being
eclipsed by questions of the political and
economic “management” of the risks of
actually or potentially utilized technologies’
 Beck, 1992: 19
3

4. Risk today?
 ‘any activity is subject to recording and broadcast’
 Zittrain, 2008: 210

5. 5

6. Lindsay’s P45
6

7. Public ridicule and reputations
 Original http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPj6viIBmU
 Remix http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mNbLCA4WHCk

8. (Celebrity) sex tapes
 Accidental?
 Deliberate?
 Harmful?
 Reputation?

9. Dirty Picture
Taio Cruz feat. Ke$ha
9

10. Facebook and privacy
 More popular than the BBC (Warman, 2008)
 Keele University incident (Williams, 2007)
 Employers vetting candidates (Bergstrom, 2008)

11. You are what you post?
 “You have one identity. […] The days of you having a different
image for your co-workers and for the other people you know
are probably coming to an end pretty quickly. […] Having two
identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity.”
 Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook (in Kiss, 2010)
11

12. The Internet, privacy & risk
 ‘online risks may arise from their very
confidence that they can know, judge and
trust the people with whom they are
intimate ... teenagers’ limited internet
literacy combined with confusing or poorly
designed site settings, [leaves] them
unclear regarding their control over who
can see what about them’
 Livingstone, 2008: 406

13. Facebook’s “News Feed”
 “The tech world has a tendency to view the concept of
‘private’ as a single bit that is either 0 or 1. Data are either
exposed or not. When companies make a decision to make
data visible in a more ‘efficient’ manner, it is often startling,
prompting users to speak of a disruption of ‘privacy’”
 boyd, 2008: 14

14. Facebook’s privacy (d)evolution
Image: Matt M
14

15. Facebook’s privacy (d)evolution
Image: Matt M
15

16. Facebook’s privacy (d)evolution
Image: Matt M
16

17. Facebook’s privacy (d)evolution
Image: Matt M
17

18. Facebook’s privacy (d)evolution
Image: Matt M
18

19. Facebook’s privacy (d)evolution
19

20. Facebook’s privacy (d)evolution
Image: Matt M
20

21. Privacy is a luxury?
 “what renders privacy a luxury commodity is that obtaining it
implies a level of computer literacy that is inaccessible to
most, and typically associated with higher income and
education levels, and certain ethnic groups, in ways that
mirror dominant socio–demographic inequalities”
 Zizi Papacharissi, 2010
21

22. Cyberbullying, trolling, flaming…
22

23. Flaming e-bile
23

24. Flaming e-bile
 Shut the fuck up you fucking ugly OLD wowser
cunt. You need a good stiff cock shoved down your
throat if you ask me.
 (E-mail sent to the Australian children’s advocate
Julie Gale, cited in Jackman [2011])
24

25. Flaming e-bile
 I hope you get raped in your *sshole and eyeballs
until you bleed to death.
 (Post on MoFo Politics [f u commenting (2011)])
25

26. Flaming e-bile
 ‘the extravagant invective, the sexualized threats of
violence, and the recreational nastiness that have
come to constitute a dominant tenor of Internet
discourse’
 Jane, 2012: 2
26

27. Flaming e-bile
 ‘Toxic and often markedly misogynist e-bile no longer
oozes only in the darkest digestive folds of the
cybersphere but circulates freely through the entire
body of the Internet’
 Jane, 2012: 2
27

28. The internet…
 A place where “even the
meekest of people” have
become “ground-shaking
titans” who “crusade and burn
and unleash hell on . . .
imaginary enemies” in “all-
caps rants”
 Tin, 2012
28

29. Trolling
 ‘The culture of sadism on-line . . . has gone
mainstream. The common term “lulz” … refers to
the gratification of watching others suffer …
Trolling is not a string of isolated incidents, but
the status quo in the online world’
 Larnier, 2010: 60
29

30. Anita Sarkeesian
30

31. 31

32. The "Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian" game
32

33. 33

34. 34

35. 35

36. 36

37. 37

38. Sean Duffy
38

39. 39

40. Creepshots
40

41. Violentacrez aka Michael Brutsch
41

42. Creepshots
42

43. 43

44. American teen sext
 4% of cell-owning teens ages 12-17 have
sent nude or nearly nude images or videos of
themselves to someone else
 8% of 17 y/o
 4% of 12 y/o
 15% have received such images of someone
they know
 18% of 14-17 y/o
 20% of 16 y/o
 30% of 17 y/o
 6% of 12-13 y/o
44

45. 3 scenarios
1. Exchanges of images solely between two
romantic partners
2. Exchanges between partners that are then
shared outside the relationship
3. Exchanges between people who are not yet
in a relationship, but where often one
person hopes to be.
45

46. Sexting: Jesse Logan
 Sent nude pictures of herself to her
boyfriend
 When they split he sent them round
school
 Labeled a slut and whore by girls at
school
 She hung herself in July 2009
46

47. Risk and harm
 Reaction against moral panics
 Internet as central to identity formation
 Risk as regular occurrence
 Harm as less likely
47

48. Risk and harm
 Analysis of European kids in 25 European
countries
 Survey of 25,000 internet-using children aged
9-16
 Also interviewed at home & face-to-face
48

49. European teen sext
 3% of 11-16 y/o had sent or posted sexual
messages on the internet
 15% had seen or received them
 34% had seen people perform sex acts online
 13% had been asked to talk about sex acts or
provide a photo/video of genitalia
49

50. Girlfriend revenge sites
50

51. Texxxan.com
51

52. Is Anyone Up?
 2010
 Founded by Hunter Moore
 Earned $10,000 per month
 Pornographic submission site
 Subject to FBI investigation in 2012
52

53. 53

54. 54

55. Summary
 New media = new risks?
 Reputation and commerce - Amazon, eBay, etc (Zittrain,
2008: 218)
 Applicable to social contexts (Youtube?)
 Surveillance brings new benefits?

56. Dangers
 Networked communication brings with it new risks
 Trust and authority can be hard to maintain
 Sites with persistent identity features (eg Facebook) can
still be subject to spoofing
56
 Motivations for trolling?

57. Questions to consider:
 To what extent do you dis/agree with the notion that
networked technologies are a fundamental part of teenage
identity formation and self-expression
 To what extent should we be concerned about teenagers
sexting? Should something be done? If so, what?
 To what extent do you agree with the claim that the internet
is leading a reduction in civility online?
 How damaging are girlfriend revenge websites? Should
something be done? If so, what?
57

58. Sources
Guy Adams (2008), ‘Couple sue McDonald's over nude photos’, The Independent,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/couple-sue-mcdonalds-over-nude-photos-1032211.html
BBC (2007), ‘UK's families put on fraud alert’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7103566.stm
Ida Bergstrom (2008), ‘Facebook can ruin your life. And so can MySpace, Bebo...’, The Independent,
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-can-ruin-your-life-and-so-can-myspace-bebo-780521.html
Daniel Boffey (2008), ‘Tax website shut down as memory stick with secret personal data of 12million is found in a pub car park’, Mail
Online,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082402/Tax-website-shut-memory-stick-secret-personal-data-12million-pub-car-park.html
danah boyd (2008), ‘Facebook's Privacy Trainwreck: Exposure, Invasion, and Social Convergence’, Convergence, Vol 14 Iss 1.
Mike Harvey (2008), ‘Horror as teenager commits suicide live’, TimesOnline, online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5203176.ece
Jonathan Krim, 2005, ‘Subway Fracas Escalates Into Test Of the Internet's Power to Shame’, The Washington Post,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/06/AR2005070601953.html
Sonia Livingstone (2008), ‘Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: teenagers' use of social networking sites for
intimacy, privacy and self-expression’, New Media & Society, Vol 10 Iss 3.
Richard Norton-Taylor (2008), ‘MoD admits inquiry into 69 lost laptops’, Guardian.co.uk,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jan/22/politics.military
John Oates (2008), ‘5,000 NHS records vanish with latest lost laptop’, The Register,
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/15/more_nhs_data_losses/
Mimi Sheller and John Urry (2003), ‘Mobile Transformations of “Public” and “Private” Life’, Theory, Culture and Society, Vol 20 Iss 3,
107-125
Mimi Sheller, 2004, ‘Mobile publics: beyond the network perspective’, Environment and Palnning D: Society and Space, vol 22 p39-52
Evan Ratliff, 2009, ‘Writer Evan Ratliff Tried to Vanish: Here’s What Happened’ in Wired
http://www.wired.com/vanish/2009/11/ff_vanish2/
Mark Warman (2008), ‘How Facebook toppled the BBC’, Telegraph,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/3394840/How-Facebook-toppled-the-BBC.html
Chris Williams (2007), ‘University moves to hush Facebook criticism’, The Register,
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/22/keele_facebook/

59. Anita Sarkeesian
59

60. Anita Sarkeesian
60

61. The "Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian" game
61

62. American teen sext
 “Yeah, it happens a lot, my friends do it all
the time, it’s not a big deal. Sometimes
people will get into fights with their exs, and
so they will send the nudes as blackmail, but
it’s usually when or after you’ve been dating
someone.”
 Female, high school student
62

63. American teen sext
 “No, [it’s not a big deal] we are not having
sex, we are sexting,”. “It’s not against my
religion or anything.”
 Male, 9th/10th grade
 “I know people think [sexting] is dangerous,
but to me, it’s no big deal because I get them
a lot.”
 Male, high school
63

64. American teen sext
 “This is common only for girls with ‘slut’
reputations. They do it to attract attention.”
 Male, high school
 “I’ve been asked to send naked pics, but I
think that’s stupid. You can ruin your
reputation. Sometimes I wonder how girls
can send naked pics to a boy. I think it’s
gross. They’re disrespecting themselves.”
 Female, middle school
64