The following entry is the “SFW” (i.e., PG-13) version of: This Blog Entry Has Been Rated NSFW What is “age appropriate” viewing? Who determines when you can see what? Let’s begin with some representative vignettes. The first from the print-centric paradigm of my youth. When I was a teenager in the seventies, growing up in the South, there were visible, physical boundaries marking what was fit for consumption by...

What is “age appropriate” viewing? Who determines when you can see what? Let’s begin with some representative vignettes. The first from the print-centric paradigm of my youth. When I was a teenager in the seventies, growing up in the South, there were visible, physical boundaries marking what was fit for consumption by those who were “under aged.” At the back of the local used paperback bookstore, a curtain...

Hacktivism is in the news, if not exactly grabbing headlines. When major service providers pulled the plug on WikiLeaks, temporarily cutting off access to the site via its domain name, “WikiLeaks.org” in hopes of hobbling financial support the venture, the boys at anonymous sprung into action, unleashing their anarchic, anti-corporate rage in the form of a series of attacks on a host of websites across the globe. What does this mean,...

Prizes. At this time of year, you can’t escape them. Top ten viral videos. Best scandals of the year. The Darwin Awards. And, of course, the induction into print media’s Hall of Fame: Time‘s Man of the Year Award. This award, you’ll recall, recognizes the person who “for better or worse has most influenced events in the past year.” Like the Academy Awards, there’s a lot of build up, the pre-hype hype,...

At this point in the discussion, it should come as no surprise to learn that an account has surfaced on the free online dating service, OKcupid, that appears to have belonged to Julian Assange back in 2006-2007. There’s nothing particularly startling in the profile of the person who self-identifies as Harry Harrison–it’s a dating site after all, so the convention is braggadocio. The profile pictures are definitely...

A little more than a year ago,  On September 29th, 2010 Gawker ran a story with the headline: How a College Kid Livestreamed His Roommate’s Gay Sexual Encounter, Possibly Causing a Suicide.  Dharun Ravi’s trial begins this week and is sure to receive international coverage. The series of essays explores what the original coverage of this tragedy has to tell us about the changing definition of privacy in the 21st century. This was...