Buffering, Buffering, Buffering …

Everyone’s at it these days. A little filming here, some editing there and then one click and it’s uploaded to the web for everyone to see, rate and comment. Making our own clips has never been so easy and most of us can do it from our phones and laptops simply by clicking a few buttons. But not everything that’s easy to do means it should be done. Here are some tips for what you probably shouldn’t record for the world to see.

Your workplace
What you might think is a harmless lunch break prank on a colleague that seemed hilarious at the time is unlikely to be so funny when your boss is calling you into his office and handing you your P45. Showing anything to do with the business that hasn’t been approved by the PR team is likely to violate the terms and conditions of your job, even little things like taking a picture of your colleague might show classified information such as where the company safe is kept, where the keys are held and where the filing cabinet is. If the picture was to fall into the wrong hands it wouldn’t be difficult for someone to know exactly when to break in and where everything was kept.

Nudity
It kind of goes without saying but there are plenty of people who still upload pictures and videos of their friends, boyfriends, and girlfriends stripping off onto social networking sights. Just because that person seemed willing at the time doesn’t mean they want it shown to their entire friend’s list which could include their family or that they knew that it was being filmed in the first place. Anything that is likely to humiliate or offend a person could land the person responsible in big trouble with the police if the footage is reported which many people do. Social networking sites have a responsibility to protect their users from anything which could cause offense and to make their site safer they make it easier for people to report another user at the click of a button and are responsible for following the report up.

Children
You want to be able to put happy footage of your children playing in the park up onto your social networking page or video channel but do you know exactly who is going to be watching it? Children or anyone who doesn’t know that pictures or footage of them have been uploaded to the internet don’t have a say and that is unfair to them. Change your account and privacy settings so only your friends and family can see what you upload and block or report anyone who writes comments you are not okay with.

Lauren Charlotte is a keen filmmaker and recommends www.wooshi.com