Are YouTube personalities responsible for the actions of their viewers?

[maybb]

Alrighty, here's some backstory to this one before I hop on into the question.

On YouTube, people often make videos where they find other people's content online, and create videos adding their own commentaries over the content (so copyright isn't technically a issue here, under Fair Use). Usually, it's viral videos, or pictures of people doing weird or silly things.

Recently, a YouTube personality who makes these types of videos found the pictures of a 10 year old girl on Instagram, where the girl was apparently posting pictures that made others uncomfortable (pics taken with older celebs, pics where she aimed her butt at the camera; no nudity or illegal stuff). Upon posting the video, the YouTuber's viewers found her Instagram, and told the 10 year old girl that she should kill herself; that she was ugly; horrible, awful comments.

My questions is: can the YouTuber be blamed for the actions of the viewers, seeing as he was the one posting the original video, or is it the fault of the viewers for going beyond the video and bullying the child? Or, are the girl's parents at fault for not monitoring their 10 year old daughter's social media use, especially when she's under the age allowed for Instagram (13 being the allowed age)?

[nox]

Well, the way I see it is, can you really blame the youtuber when the 10 year old girl already posted that stuff? It was already out there where anyone can see it. And unless the youtuber specifically said "yo, this is their twitter, go post ugly comments to it" then I don't see why he should be blamed for posting the content. Because, technically speaking, it was already out there, on instagram, Anyone can stumble upon it. So, unless the youtube specifically sent the viewers there, they shouldn't be blamed for it. That's not saying the youtuber is 100% innocent here. He did take the pictures of the young girl, and I assume made fun at them and poked jokes? So, yeah, thats not right, but thats what youtubers tend to do. Is it morally wrong, alot of people would say yes, I would too. But unfortunately today, morals are just personal things people carry around that are at different levels for different people and aren't taken into account for a lot of things.

Now, the parents definitely should for not monitoring the little girl. The viewers are also at fault for taking it upon them selves.

It's an awful situation though. It sickens me how far some trolls will take it.

I really don't know if I made much sense lol.

[smartinez79]

no

[bittey]

WOW! It is horrible how some people take every opportunity to be cruel, mean, and ugly.

Yes, parents should monitor their children but some of these young people are so savvy they get around their parents and get into some really bad situations.

No, You cannot hold the YouTube personality responsible for their viewers but you can hold them responsible for presenting negative, bullying, or hateful material.

[jennamazingg]

No, no, no and no! Everyone is responsible for their own actions. Period.
You can't know what someone's going to do, based on something that you say and/or do! It's just not possible.. & none of us can go through life, living in like a bubble, afraid we'll be blamed because someone else does something and says it's because of something we did or said. What kind of world would that be? We can't be responsible for the actions of others. Everyone has to take responsibility for their own actions.

[ocean_crumbles]

The way I see things is that a person who is mentally capable shouldn't be able to blame their actions on someone else. In the end of the day someone on youtube is just a person on youtube and what they say wouldnt have an influence on a person who had a normal state of mind who could think reasonable. If a person uses a youtube personality as an excuse to do something bad then the blame is on the person letting youtube ve the reason. Someone cannot account for all the people in the world. It is like saying maybe I shouldn't say this joke on divachix because maybe someone will take it out of context. You cannot limit yourself because of the possible what ifs. Yu cannot limit your free speech just because some people are insane. I hate the word insane but I couldnt think of a better word for it.
I think ways to look at it is when you say something look at how would a person who acts to this are they a reasonable person, and are they being objective? I am sure there is a bigger test involved.
But I don't believe that youtube personalities are responsible with what people do with what they say. Do you believe that celebrities are responsible for people's actions? Role models?

The only time I can see them being responsible is if they have a huge following and actively tell them to do something. But if they're not out there telling them to do something then I don't see them as responsible.

[ocean_crumbles]

Whos the youtube personlaity?

[fox]

None of them. Society is guilty. Is guilty for making a 10yo wanting to do adult crazy stuff. Guilty to make people think it's okay to stupid enough and make those crazy attitudes go viral or whatever. Guilty for allowing bashing, undermining and agressive behaviour get to a 10yo.

[ocean_crumbles]

How can you blame society? @fox

[minidoxigirli]

There's a big gap between "societally culpable" and "legally responsible" for me. Should anyone be held legally responsible, AKA thrown in jail, for their followers' actions? Absolutely not. If some teen kills themselves or others because of a video on Youtube, the video maker should not be thrown in jail at all. Should they be vilified, and/or views as a bad person? Probably!

[vasordiel]

I find this topic very interesting. Legally speaking, the youtuber would only be held responsible if they instigated their viewers to take action against the girl, or if they provided personal data of hers. Now, if they only used material that she made public for anyone to see, the second option wouldn't apply. If they instigated their audience or not would be for the judge/jury to determine. I can't speak for every country because I don't know every law, but this would be a general approach.

Now ethically speaking... Who makes a video making fun of a 10 year old? That alone is not right. What's more, a youtuber with many followers knows their audience and their repercussion. From past experience, they can definitely guess how their viewers are going to react. So I think they would know that some of their viewers would want to find the girl and make fun of her (I'm not saying they should expect a mass reaction, but yes a certain number of people because, let's be honest, Internet is dark and full of trolls). And yet, knowing that, they did the video anyway, because it was fun. Well, not for the girl.

I agree with the others who said that the society we have created makes kids do things they really shouldn't. They learn by imitation; some things like playing mums and dads are harmless, others like posting inappropriate pics or twerking might not be, but that's a whole different debate. And sadly, closely monitoring what kids do on a computer is not that easy for some parents, an older kid (such as this girl) can definitely find a way to circumvent restrictions.

[fox]

Originally Posted by vasordiel

I find this topic very interesting. Legally speaking, the youtuber would only be held responsible if they instigated their viewers to take action against the girl, or if they provided personal data of hers. Now, if they only used material that she made public for anyone to see, the second option wouldn't apply. If they instigated their audience or not would be for the judge/jury to determine. I can't speak for every country because I don't know every law, but this would be a general approach.

Now ethically speaking... Who makes a video making fun of a 10 year old? That alone is not right. What's more, a youtuber with many followers knows their audience and their repercussion. From past experience, they can definitely guess how their viewers are going to react. So I think they would know that some of their viewers would want to find the girl and make fun of her (I'm not saying they should expect a mass reaction, but yes a certain number of people because, let's be honest, Internet is dark and full of trolls). And yet, knowing that, they did the video anyway, because it was fun. Well, not for the girl.

I agree with the others who said that the society we have created makes kids do things they really shouldn't. They learn by imitation; some things like playing mums and dads are harmless, others like posting inappropriate pics or twerking might not be, but that's a whole different debate. And sadly, closely monitoring what kids do on a computer is not that easy for some parents, an older kid (such as this girl) can definitely find a way to circumvent restrictions.

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