While I sometimes wish I didn't, I love Facebook. It has helped keep me in regular contact with friends and family all across the country. Whether they live 20 minutes or 1500 miles away, we're able to regularly chat, e-mail back and forth, joke around, and catch up with one another.
However, while I make Facebook sound almost perfect, it's anything but that. One of the major reasons why people stray away from social networking sites such as Facebook is privacy concerns. Granted, there are options on the site which allow for people to tinker with their privacy controls some, however, so long as they have an account, there is a risk for lack of privacy.
Politicians, judges, lawyers, and employers have yet to really discover the true boundary between what information should be left alone on a person's Facebook account and what information they should have the legal authority to use against that person.
Some employees have gotten fired for posting critical messages regarding their place of employment. Should that be protected by free speech, especially since it was likely stated away from the workplace? Is that freedom limited when employed, even away from the workplace? How would the employer have found out about it if the employee criticized the company to some friends or family members and not posted such commentary on Facebook? Are complaints and criticism kind of inevitable with regard to an employee's workplace? It's quite the blurred line, without many signs of it getting figured out anytime soon. While some employers require a potential employee to unveil his or her Facebook page so they can look it over, others don't do that. Some politicians have even attempted to pass into law a bill that would make it illegal for employers to look at a potential employee's Facebook page as a factor in hiring or not hiring him or her.
There are other situations which aren't so blurred. For example, not too terribly long ago, a person posted on Facebook that he was driving drunk. Someone must have seen this, alerted the authorities, and he got pulled over as a result.
In a more recent like-situation, Shawn Moore bought and gave his 11-year old son a .22-caliber rifle for his birthday. What did Shawn decide to do? Take a picture of his son, decked out in camouflage, holding the rifle, without anyone else in the picture. He then decided to post this photo on Facebook. What resulted in this series of stupid decisions? Someone who saw the photo alerted the authorities and last Friday, Mr. Moore was paid a visit by state child welfare investigators and four local police officers. The officers asked to inspect Mr. Moore's guns and when they were asked about a warrant, and responded that they didn't have one, they were asked to leave the residence and did so.
With regard to this series of events, Mr. Moore said:
"I don't like what happened. You're not even safe in your own house. If they can just show up at any time and make you open safes and go through your house, that's not freedom; it's like tyranny."
State child welfare spokeswoman Kristine Brown said this regarding the incident:
"It's the caseworker's call. It is important to note the way an investigation begins is through the child abuse hotline. Someone has to call to let us know there is a concern."
What was Sean Moore expecting, really? We're not far removed from the tragic Newtown, Connecticut shootings. He places a picture of his 11-year old son holding a rifle on Facebook, and he thought EVERYONE would be okay with that? That no one would wonder or worry and possibly call the authorities? He's not beside his son in the photo. Nobody is. It's simply a picture of an 11-year old boy, decked in camouflage, holding a .22-caliber rifle. I think Sean Moore has a few things to learn about Facebook, like: Privacy settings, who his friends are, and that it's probably not a wise move to be posting a picture of your 11-year old son holding a .22-caliber rifle without anyone else in the photo.
I have to laugh about Moore's "tyranny" comment. He does realize this only happened due to him posting this picture on Facebook, right? ...and a "friend" of his making a phone call about it, right? It's not like the child welfare investigators and police officers just magically showed up at Moore's doorstep. They were obviously alerted by someone. What happened in the end? Did the officers confiscate Moore's guns? No. That makes for quite the tyrant right there!
Tyrant Kong: "May I see your guns?"
Moore: "But...but..."
Kong: "Please...?"
Moore: "Oh, alright..."
Kong: "::looks the guns over:: Well, it appears as if these are all legal firearms. Do you have a permit for them all?"
Moore: "No. You don't need a permit in the state of New Jersey."
Kong: "True. Well, here you are. ::gives Moore his guns back:: Sorry to have bothered you. Have a pleasant rest of your day."
Moore: "Tyrant!"
Shawn Moore doesn't appear to be the brightest color in a Tim Burton-esque rainbow. My guess is he'll celebrate his son's coming few birthday by posting the following pictures on Facebook:
12th birthday - picture of his son holding a machete
13th birthday - picture of his son holding an assault-rifle
14th birthday - picture of his son holding a grenade
15th birthday - picture of his son holding a rocket launcher
16th birthday - picture of his son driving a tank
17th birthday - picture of his son holding a porno
18th birthday - picture of his son holding a bottle of Jack Daniels
19th birthday - picture of himself in tears, due to his son going off to college and placing a restraining order against him
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/19/sean-moore-facebook-gun-photo_n_2910779.html?1363735536&icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D286156
However, while I make Facebook sound almost perfect, it's anything but that. One of the major reasons why people stray away from social networking sites such as Facebook is privacy concerns. Granted, there are options on the site which allow for people to tinker with their privacy controls some, however, so long as they have an account, there is a risk for lack of privacy.
Politicians, judges, lawyers, and employers have yet to really discover the true boundary between what information should be left alone on a person's Facebook account and what information they should have the legal authority to use against that person.
Some employees have gotten fired for posting critical messages regarding their place of employment. Should that be protected by free speech, especially since it was likely stated away from the workplace? Is that freedom limited when employed, even away from the workplace? How would the employer have found out about it if the employee criticized the company to some friends or family members and not posted such commentary on Facebook? Are complaints and criticism kind of inevitable with regard to an employee's workplace? It's quite the blurred line, without many signs of it getting figured out anytime soon. While some employers require a potential employee to unveil his or her Facebook page so they can look it over, others don't do that. Some politicians have even attempted to pass into law a bill that would make it illegal for employers to look at a potential employee's Facebook page as a factor in hiring or not hiring him or her.
There are other situations which aren't so blurred. For example, not too terribly long ago, a person posted on Facebook that he was driving drunk. Someone must have seen this, alerted the authorities, and he got pulled over as a result.
In a more recent like-situation, Shawn Moore bought and gave his 11-year old son a .22-caliber rifle for his birthday. What did Shawn decide to do? Take a picture of his son, decked out in camouflage, holding the rifle, without anyone else in the picture. He then decided to post this photo on Facebook. What resulted in this series of stupid decisions? Someone who saw the photo alerted the authorities and last Friday, Mr. Moore was paid a visit by state child welfare investigators and four local police officers. The officers asked to inspect Mr. Moore's guns and when they were asked about a warrant, and responded that they didn't have one, they were asked to leave the residence and did so.
With regard to this series of events, Mr. Moore said:
"I don't like what happened. You're not even safe in your own house. If they can just show up at any time and make you open safes and go through your house, that's not freedom; it's like tyranny."
State child welfare spokeswoman Kristine Brown said this regarding the incident:
"It's the caseworker's call. It is important to note the way an investigation begins is through the child abuse hotline. Someone has to call to let us know there is a concern."
What was Sean Moore expecting, really? We're not far removed from the tragic Newtown, Connecticut shootings. He places a picture of his 11-year old son holding a rifle on Facebook, and he thought EVERYONE would be okay with that? That no one would wonder or worry and possibly call the authorities? He's not beside his son in the photo. Nobody is. It's simply a picture of an 11-year old boy, decked in camouflage, holding a .22-caliber rifle. I think Sean Moore has a few things to learn about Facebook, like: Privacy settings, who his friends are, and that it's probably not a wise move to be posting a picture of your 11-year old son holding a .22-caliber rifle without anyone else in the photo.
I have to laugh about Moore's "tyranny" comment. He does realize this only happened due to him posting this picture on Facebook, right? ...and a "friend" of his making a phone call about it, right? It's not like the child welfare investigators and police officers just magically showed up at Moore's doorstep. They were obviously alerted by someone. What happened in the end? Did the officers confiscate Moore's guns? No. That makes for quite the tyrant right there!
Tyrant Kong: "May I see your guns?"
Moore: "But...but..."
Kong: "Please...?"
Moore: "Oh, alright..."
Kong: "::looks the guns over:: Well, it appears as if these are all legal firearms. Do you have a permit for them all?"
Moore: "No. You don't need a permit in the state of New Jersey."
Kong: "True. Well, here you are. ::gives Moore his guns back:: Sorry to have bothered you. Have a pleasant rest of your day."
Moore: "Tyrant!"
Shawn Moore doesn't appear to be the brightest color in a Tim Burton-esque rainbow. My guess is he'll celebrate his son's coming few birthday by posting the following pictures on Facebook:
12th birthday - picture of his son holding a machete
13th birthday - picture of his son holding an assault-rifle
14th birthday - picture of his son holding a grenade
15th birthday - picture of his son holding a rocket launcher
16th birthday - picture of his son driving a tank
17th birthday - picture of his son holding a porno
18th birthday - picture of his son holding a bottle of Jack Daniels
19th birthday - picture of himself in tears, due to his son going off to college and placing a restraining order against him
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/19/sean-moore-facebook-gun-photo_n_2910779.html?1363735536&icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D286156
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