I believe that we as humans deserve to view whatever content we want online, within reason ofcourse. I feel that as though certain videos do have some sort of value to them even if some users find them to be offensive. Take the video of James Foley being brutally beheaded, I personally haven't seen the video but until I got the details from others who had viewed it, I didn't realize that it was as gruesome as it was. I know this may seem like an arguement to have it banned, but I think that for people who want to see it, they should be able to know whats really going on in the world and to understand how cruel society can be. Hopefully the more educated people are, the more will be done to stop things like that from happening again or reduce the risk. It does violate YouTube's user policy of not being able to submit material that is offensive, obscene and pornopgraphic, however I feel that there are other things that YouTube could do besides taking the video down, maybe if they had like a material rating like how they do with movies and something like the beheading video would obviously be rated as "R". Something along those lines would keep it still somewhat sensored but still open for people who want to stay informed.
I feel like the public would be more educated if we watched the events happen, we would be able to process it and it would make it more real which hopefully would spark a reaction so justice can be served. Another example of a video that has been taken down would be " Three Guys, One Hammer", which is a video of three teenagers from Ukraine who went on a brutual murdering spree in 2007, and video taped some of the incidents. They ended up with almost around 30 victims from the event, and were eventually caught and prosecuted, now being referred to as the Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs (Ronn,2011). Even though they were caught, doesn't mean that the public no longer has to worry about something like this happening again. The world can be a scary place and we as humans deserve a right to make judgements for ourselves how involved in society we want to be. I do not support the acts occuring in these videos but I'd rather be informed about events like this and be scared, then pretend the world is a peaceful place. There are articles available with the information but to be honest, most people what news the quick and fast way which is why most people tune in on TV so the internet is just another outlet for news to be easily accessible rather than searching through articles. YouTube is meant for people to stay connected from all over, which should include breaking news of good and bad events in the world.
Works Cited
Ronn. 2011. Shocking Story- The Truth Behind 3 Guys, One Hammer.
http://getshocked.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/hello-world/
