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Would You Sue Snapchat?

One of the newer Snapchat filters, Speed, is causing some issue. What are filters? They are add-ons you can use for Snapchats. According to their website, “Jazz up your Snap by adding a fun overlay with a Filter! After you take a Snap, swipe right or left on the preview screen to add colored filters, the current time, local weather, speed overlays or Geofilters to your Snaps.”

Newer filters included date, location, and other geo-filters. More recently, their “speed” filter has been making headlines – it allows users to record the speed they are traveling when the image was taken.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right?

Of course they have the standard warning – “don’t snap and drive” – but they are forgetting who their core demographic is – teens and 20 somethings. They take risks, think they’re invincible, and all of that good stuff. I can’t imagine many teens running with their phones while taking pictures to use this filter. I can see some as passengers in a car, but unfortunately I can also envision teens using it while they are driving.

A news story was making its rounds last week. A teen got into an accident while she was trying to use the speed filter. The man she hit was severely injured, with traumatic brain injury among other things. He is now suing the family of the teen driver and Snapchat.

The teen driver openly admitted the reason for the crash. From the article: “McGee wanted to post an image of herself going fast. She argued that she was, ‘Just trying to get the car to 100 miles per hour to post it on Snapchat.'” the victim’s lawyers say.”

My first thought was about the man and his family suing Snapchat – should the social media company be held responsible for the accident? My first inclination was against suing – I likened it to suing a beer company for an accident that involved a drunk driver who was drinking that particular beer. There are plenty of warnings about drinking and driving, and if someone chooses to abuse the product, they and they alone should be held accountable.

However, as I thought about it and learned more about the story, I may be changing my mind. First, I do believe that social sites have a responsibility in the features of their product. As I mentioned earlier, there’s not much to do with a filter that records speed outside of driving, at least not much that would appeal to Snapchat’s users. It’s almost asking for trouble.

Secondly, according to the lawsuit, Snapchat was aware of other similar accidents while using this filter, and a petition was started on change.org that encouraged the company to remove the filter. Yet the filter remains.

If the company has in fact become aware of instances in which the filter was directly responsible for car accidents and has not removed it, then I think it’s fair game for this victim to sue the company. Unlike my beer analogy, this filter is directly tied to activities that could put a driver in harm’s way. Beer is not meant to be consumed while driving, operating a bicycle, or even roller skating for that fact. This filter is designed to be used specifically to track speed, and driving is a significant method for doing so.

I will be watching this story develop as it plays out in court. In the meantime, I would love to hear your thoughts – do you think the victim in this accident is right in suing Snapchat? Please leave your comments below and join in the conversation!

Police Tracked Him With One Tweet

This one post started it all..

Police departments have turned to social media to help solve crimes, track witnesses and suspects, and monitor activity in their jurisdictions. It’s no surprise then that this young man, who likely thought he was just a face in the crowd, didn’t realize that he would soon be caught.

It all started with this young man was enjoying Spring Break festivities. At some point, it appears that the police were patrolling the area, and he thought it would be funny to launch a football at them. After all, he’s in a crowd of people, who seem to be cheering him on, and he’ll never get caught, right?

Wrong.

Police departments monitor social media activity, and especially so during events or Spring Break periods when they know they have their work cut out for them. It is clear that this police department was actively monitoring social activity in the area; this post was identified as the ‘football thrower” fairly quickly. From there, the police were able to determine who this might be, and worked with that man’s local police department to further identify him.

As you seen in the video above, they used social media in their own way to let the young man know there was a warrant out for his arrest. At the end of the video it says: “Hey Kameron, We found you. Great arm. Bad decision. An arrest warrant has been issued for you. You can turn yourself in at the Gulf Shores Police Department.”

Police have a wealth of information available to them through social media, and it is reported that up to 80% of police departments will use social media information in their work. It’s proving to server as an extremely useful tool, and its use will likely become commonplace among police departments worldwide.

Using Social Media To Evaluate Job Candidates

The question hiring managers and HR professionals face now is how—and whether—to perform online background checks on job candidates. This is a fair, ‘objective’ review of current realities.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: easysmallbusinesshr.com

Social Media Background Checks: Modern Day Job Screening [Chart]

I was listening to a radio show the other day while I was working, and as they were talking about the role of social media in the hiring process, the guest

I was listening to a radio show the other day while I was working, and as they were talking about the role of social media in the hiring process, the guest

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.bitrebels.com

Schools Monitoring Social Media: Good Move or Creepy?

Social media has become a new form of communication for teens. While mostly good, it has unfortunately comes with its down side too. While there is plenty of education aimed at teens about social media use and responsibility, they are still teens, not fully thinking though their actions, and at times posting content that they don’t realize the potential consequences of.

The two most common aspects talked about are cyber bullying and content indicating trouble for teens. Prior to social media, bullying was an issue of course, but the internet has made this easier. Several years ago, kids relied on what they perceived as the “anonymity” of online activities. I recall a student in one of my children’s classes who took to email around that time, before social media became so popular. She created a gmail account and sent an awful email to a classmate, likely thinking that it could never be traced to her. Parents and the school got involved, and this was quickly addressed, and it launched a discussion of internet responsibility and safety.

Then came social media, and things changed again.

This is why schools are turning to social media monitoring services to assist. With these programs, schools can continually monitor online conversations to try to pinpoint potential safety issues, like students threatening other students or teachers, or making threats toward the school. It can also be helpful to monitor content for indications of a student’s emotional health – that is, if ominous posts are made about self-harm, for example, these can be collected and identified to hopefully circumvent the issue and get the student the help that is needed.

Social media monitoring is not new; our firm launched the first social media monitoring program back in 2007. It was first used for brand reputation and monitoring, but as the wealth of information that can be collected has grown, it has gained popularity. Most recently, location based social monitoring has been incorporated – simply put, a school can put a “fence” around a school to monitor what conversations are happening within the school. This has been a game changer for education and has given schools even more tools for monitoring students’ online activities.

This has become a heated debate across the country, with parents divided. While some feel that it is “big brother” and the schools are trampling on a family’s privacy, others welcome it and encourage schools to monitor social media.

Personally, as a mother of three teenagers, I have no problems with this should the schools decide to implement social media monitoring. There are a few reasons why I think it’s important and vital in this social media age:

1. It takes a village: social media sites are popping up all the time. Whereas Facebook was the popular choice for teens in the past, that has now been taken over by Instagram and other sites. And then there was Snapchat – the amazing disappearing act of social media. Even if you think you know all of the sites your child is on, you may not. And even if your child isn’t on a particular social site, there may be another student that is, posting harmful content or images of your child. As parents, we can monitor and Google search until the cows come home, but we are limited by either knowledge and/or depth of our search. This extra layer of protection can be helpful – if a cyber bullying or similar situation should come up and be related to your child, and your child isn’t quite aware and/or isn’t sharing it with you, it may be uncovered through the school. It’s another layer of protection I am comfortable with.

2. It can keep students safe: how many times have we heard of a tragic school incident where we later find out that the people involved posted warnings, whether direct or indirect, on social sites prior to the event? While not every situation will come with a warning through social media, it seems that having the monitoring in place to alert to postings that could mean trouble do pop up more frequently than we’d think they would. Being able to capture this proactively is much better than finding it after the fact of course, and real time monitoring programs can give schools a head start on predicting and preventing potential issues.

3. It can help identify students who are hurting: those with mental health issues or those just going through a tough time may make cries for help online, either purposely or not. Classmates may or may not see this content, and may not tell their parents or a trusted adult, which is a shame, but unfortunately it happens. Utilizing a monitoring program to potentially identify students who are really struggling emotionally can be a turning point for them and their family. Monitoring can pick up content that may indicate an intent to harm ones self or others and the schools can be proactive in identifying this and getting the proper help for a student.

It may seem a bit “Big Brother” but unfortunately it is our new normal. I am all for continued education on social media, and helping students in this regard. Social media monitoring is one piece of the puzzle, and if schools can utilize it properly, I’m all for it.

Where do you stand on the issue? Good move, or a bit creepy? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!