What Should and Shouldn’t be Posted (School Project)

I have different thoughts on what should be postable on the internet.

 On one hand, I think adults should be able to post adult-oriented content. I do believe there is a problem with children being exposed to sexual themes and adult content. Therefore, adult content should be kept on sites that require age verification. 

Images such as swimsuit pictures, photos with suggestive content, and consumable things such as drugs and alcohol shouldn’t have a restriction. As an adult, and according to most social media terms of service, these things are not counted as harmful for anyone and can be posted as the person wishes.

“We know that there are times when people might want to share nude images that are artistic or creative in nature, but for a variety of reasons, we don’t allow nudity on Instagram. This includes photos, videos, and some digitally-created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks. It also includes some photos of female nipples, but photos in the context of breastfeeding, birth giving and after-birth moments, health-related situations (for example, post-mastectomy, breast cancer awareness or gender confirmation surgery) or an act of protest are allowed. Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is OK, too.” - Instagram's Community Guidelines

As for informational posting of images, such as the photos shown during war times, I believe there shouldn’t be a limit to what is shown. Bringing awareness to the issue is more important than being worried about decency. Another thought, the people that are shown being hurt or even dead will have no idea that the photo was shown to millions. During the Vietnam war, the turning point for the then president John F. Kennedy was seeing the monk setting himself on fire. This, in result, showed him how terrible the things were in Vietnam; which led him to send more troops.

During World War 2, pictures of the burning corpses of jews were published to newspapers, and are still online today. I do not see a problem with this. If we were to forget the history of what happened during World War 2, it would be detrimental to us and the people it originally happened to. It shows the horror of what people are capable of doing.

One of the internet's biggest horrors is the dark web, and the deep web. These sights host millions of videos containing extreme gore, violence, assaults, and murder. But as some people may not know, these gore sites are completely accessible from your everyday web browser. Thousands of sites host extremely graphic content on the surface web containing the exact same things I already mentioned. I do NOT believe that these sites should be easily accessible, let alone exist. The harming of others, accidents, and autopsy photos should not be shown on the internet. It is not bringing awareness, it is only there for the sake of being there. And for many individuals, it is there for entertainment. If my best friend were to get into a horrific accident, I wouldn’t want a random person posting it to the r/gore subreddit.

In conclusion, adults should be able to post themselves to age-appropriate websites, unpleasant media representing a change should be allowed, and no gore should be posted for the sole purpose of being entertainment.