The Ethics of Photos

Question: Discuss about theEthics of Photos. Answer: Introduction The internet has become a popular mode of communication for young children, adults, organizations and businessperson. There are number of different advantages due to which people as well as organization wants to publish their images including documentation, advertisement or for promoting different activities of an organization (Jassim et al., 2015). The accessibility as well as the increased popularity of social media has become very easy therefore, many people including adults and young children share their images on facebook, twitter and web pages. This has raised number of ethical challenges, which includes contributors safety, social journalist well-being, right and legal issues and issues related with workflow and resources (Cornwall et al., 2016). The use of photography is an integral part of medical surgery in hospital, which has raised many liability issues. The liabilities issues occur as sometimes are photographed without their consent or knowledge. There are number of lega l issues of photography in plastic surgery practices. In this essay, different type of ethical issues that occurs due to photography is discussed. The content of this assignment covers issues that are related with images on social media, Intellectual and Intangible property Images of Children, issues occurred due to Manipulation and Deception of images. The easy also discusses the problems or ethical issues that are related with the access sing of images and cameras. Various problems are also illustrated that are related with the identity theft. Discussion on Ethical Issues of Photography Ethical Issues of Intellectual and Intangible property Intellectual property is defined as the original creative work that is manifested in a tangible form, which can be protected legally. Advertising, fashion and lifestyle photographers include various types of sculptures, paintings, toys or other types of artistic works in the photography (Eckhoff, 2015). The photographs that are made by the artist are often protected by copyright. Only the owner of the copyright has the right to reproduce the photographs. The copyright law protects not only photographs but also different types of literary and artistic works. Many ethical issues are related with the copyright of the photos (Foreman, 2015). In todays world, images can be transferred all around the world very quickly. This enhances the risks associated with the photos that were meant to be private but entered into the public arena. . It is mentioned by the copyright law that any picture that is used for modification then it must wholly be done by the owner of the copyright otherwise the picture should be created again in order to maintain the law of copyright. In order to safeguard the intangibility of an image it is suggested that the image must be used by the owner of the image. If it is used by another individual than both the intellectuality and tangibility of, the image is destroyed (Bittar-Cortez et al., 2014). The ethical issues that are related with the copyrights are many. If an image or photograph of an individual is shared or downloaded by another individual then the act is against the copyright law. Therefore, it is an ethical issue (te Riele Baker, 2016).The downloaded or shared images on the social networking sites can be used by another individual for making fake profiles. This act is very much dangerous it creates a negative impact on the personal information of an individual. If a image of a student wearing the school uniform is posted on social media then the information about the schooling of the student is revealed. Thus it can be misused by some individuals in kidnapping or in providing threats. The copyright act suggest that an image must be used by an individual who owns it and thus if it is used or shared by another individual then it is a crime whether the person is using it for an legal or illegal activity (Couldry, 2012). The images of children and elders are accessed from the social networking sites in order to misuse them in illegal activities such as bullying. Hence, it is always recommended that youngster and elders must investigate about the site on which they are uploading or posting their pictures. Twitter uses the benefits of a post without sharing it with its users (McKee, 2013). Therefore, a user must know all the rules and regulation before using a social networking sites. The facebook and twitter must use proper licensing and authentication technique in order to avoid issues related with copyright or intangibility. Ethical Issues of Images on Social Media The social media acts as platform for making new friends and getting information. It has been seen that the use of social media has been increased over the years. The passage of time and growth of technology has largely influenced the advent of social media in daily lives of people. However, social media does not only provide benefits in the lives of people (Walker, 2012). Everyone over the social media faces some general problems like misuse of personal images and information. The misuse of image over the social media can greatly affect the persons life in a permeate manner. The ethical issues faced by people because of misuse of the images posted over the social media are explained below. Misusing images for creating profile in some other sites: It has been seen in many cases that the images and information about the people (especially girls) are used for creating a fake profile over other social media sites (Couldry, 2012). There are references of many cases where a person has claimed that the images and information posted on a website has not been provided by him or her. It is mostly seen in the case of girls. The images such as group pictures and selfies are used for making the fake id on the website to appear genuine (Williams et al., 2013). Hence, the images are vulnerable over the social media and they can profoundly be misused by other persons. Editing of the images: The images provided over the social media are photo shopped by others. The images over the social media are generally public and it makes them vulnerable for ill treatment (Kim et al., 2014). The images over the social media are used by social criminals for editing them for their financial gains. The images posted by the celebrities over the social media are treated by various photo editing software and applications. These edited pictures are sold in the market for financial gain. Compromise of privacy and confidentiality: The images of the person are strictly liable to be used by that person only. However, the platform of social media can be filtrated for extracting the information and images (Barbovschi et al., 2013). The technological development of the information system of social media had made it possible for the cyber criminals and hackers to get into the system. The private images of the celebrities, sports person, and renowned person are being downloaded from their account and misused in the market. The information system in the social media is misused in the information system. Hence, it can be said that the ethical issues faced by the images posted over social media can be classified into misusing images for creating profile in some other sites, editing of the images for personal gain, and compromise of privacy and confidentiality. These ethical issues of the information system can be sorted out by checking the privacy options and limiting the visitors on the social media. Ethical Issues of Images of Children Many people all around the world share the images of their children on social websites to promote different activities (Bobkowski Smith, 2013). Different organizations involved with children and young people such as performing art groups and sport share the images for the promotion of their organization on social networking site. The accessibility and the increasing popularity of internet networking sites led people sharing more images of their children and near ones. This has increased the ethical concern of the people, which has impact on the safety, and welfare of the young children. There are many issues related with privacy. There is a commonwealth law related with the privacy of the unauthorized production and publication of an individuals image. This law helps in regulating the personal information of children that helps in conveying the identity of a person (Cook, 2010). For example if a person standing outside the house or wearing school uniform should not be published on the social networking sites as it can keep the children in danger. According to the child, protection legislation the identity of a student must be keep confidential. The images of small children should not be posted as it can be used for different illegal practices. The pictures of the children posted by the parents on social networking sites can follow children from their birth to death as their data are sold and resold to different marketers. They provide prejudice as well as barriers to the marketers (Green, 2013). Sometimes a picture of a children uploaded by a parents can be shared by another individual and at last a situation occurs when it is impossible to stop sharing of that picture. The picture of that child can be used for illegal practices such as bullying. The private information of the children can be accessed from the social networking sites by the kidnappers (Jassim et al., 2015). Pictures of the children must be kept safe so that they do not have to face situations or problems due to illegal activity on their pictures on the social networking sites (Greensmith Green, 2015). The facebook or twitter must use proper authentication so that the images of children should not be misused. Hence, the ethical issues related with the images of the children can be solved by taking proper measures. The parents should not publicly post the images of their children on social media. Social networking sites must use proper authentication and copyrights of the images so that they cannot be share by another individual. Parents should avoid pictures of their children, which show their private details such as address, or name of the school. The individuals who use the pictures for illegal activities must be penalized. All the factor would be helpful in minimizing the ethical issues of the images of the children. Ethical Issues of Manipulation and Deception Using Images The images that are available from other sources can be misused for personal or financial gain (Hannay Baatard, 2011). The technology has been developing over the time with the innovation in technology. It is possible that the images can easily be edited or modified as per the requirements of the person. A number of photo editing software like Picasa, photo editor, and Adobe Photoshop. The software can edit, modify, manipulate or distort the image as per ones requirements. Ethical issues of manipulating and dissipating images by others: Manipulating People use the editing for earning money or making a good profile picture over the social sites (Hazell, 2011). However, many people misuse the technology for distorting the images for controversy and personal gain. For example- crazy fans always manipulate the images of their favorite cricketers, actors, or celebrities. These are harmless try of fans for their own pleasure. However, some of the people have gone further in creating controversial image after editing them and it has resulted in severe problems to many people. Recently a news article came that showed that Force account have to delete the edited images of famous celebrities made by fans (Livingstone, 2014). They had to suffer from many ethical issues and charges for letting people post such pictures online. Ethical issues of self manipulating and dissipating images: The manipulation and dissipation of the images are not only done by others seeking financial and personal gain (ORourke, 2011). It has been seen that the people are using various photo editing software for forming better images. The images are photo shopped for making attractive and effective profile pictures as the images over the social media are generally public. Hence, it has become a trend for beautifying the images. However, it has resulted in harming the moral of people and creating false impact on others. The moral of people who are average looking feels complexion from these edited pictures and images of others. There is major inferior complexion issue faced by the people with minor flaws on their images. The people have started using Photoshop for making them look pretty and fit. The image correction and correlation have largely affected the quality of image with resizing and toning options (Staksrud et al., 2013). The edited pictures and images of people made a false impact on the others. Hence, there are two major reasons for ethical issues by the manipulating and dissipation of the images and they are classified into the self manipulation and manipulation by others. All these have contributed in affecting the life of people involved in the event. However, if the ethnicity of the human values are maintained it would be possible for minimizing the harmful effect of the misuse, manipulation and dissipating of the images. Access to Images, Camera Access and Ownership Using Mobile Devices The images that are posted on the social networking sites such as facebook, twitter are the property of the owner and therefore the copyright of the images belongs to the owner of the pictures or posts (Stein, 2009). The owner of the image or picture have the right to modify it, change whenever required, distribute, copy or share it as per the need. The owner of the image have the right to copy, use or distribute the image but when the image is posted in the social networking site the site gets a license to use the image for their commercial activity and can share the image with other individuals also. For example, Twitter or Facebook can use the uploaded image of a person for their commercial gains, which can be done by obtaining likes and shares of the images (Cochrane, 2012).The service that is provided by the twitter is very much risky than the services provided by the facebook. In twitter, people can recover their deleted images this means that twitter led an individual to use t he image after also its authentication of its license is terminated. Twitter also provides access permission to different users in order to gain profit from the images that are posted by the user. They gain profit without paying any amount to the users. Therefore, it is very much necessary that the users must be careful before posting picturing on different sites of the social media. The problems that are related with the ownership of the image can raise an ethical issue for the social networking sites (Johnson Zinkhan, 2015). The issues must be solved or mitigated such that the user does not have to face problems before posting pictures on the social networking sites. The users must feel free in posting pictures to different social networking sites such as facebook and twitter. The sharing of the images must be licensed and restricted on the social networking site in order to minimize the problems that can arise to the misuse of the images. Many ethical issues as the images of different individual sometimes are used by other for performing illegal activities. The images of others are downloaded, shared on social networking site that is against the copyright act (Hashmi et al., 2015). It is very much important to maintain the copyright of the images. The ethical dilemmas are harassing people by misusing their individuality, threat on National Security, and false financial transactions (Dhotre et al., 2014). These problems have major role in harming the mental health of the individual by harassing them on basic level, physically by the efforts they have to make for proving that they have no hands in the frauds or faults made, and financially. The social networking cites must use proper license facilities so that the images of different individuals cannot be accessed by other individuals. It must also be maintained in mobile phones or cameras so that the images of other individuals cannot be misused by others (Zabih, 2015). It is very much important for the users that they must investigate the social networking sites properly in order to have proper authentication of pictures on the social networking sites. Ethical Issues of Identity Theft Identity theft is the major issue that has been faced by the people. Identity theft is an offensive crime and punishable offense to ones right to privacy. The posting of images over the Internet has resulted in making the identity of the person vulnerable. Harassing people by misusing their identity: The identity crisis is a result of identity theft by using the information provided and images posted over the internet. The people use the identity of different persons for getting their work done (Hazell, 2011).The identity theft can be misused for financial gain as well as for harming the involved person. For example- the hackers make fake id in the name of some other person and post pictures of the person for making it look genuine (Zabih, 2015). Then using the same fake accounts they get into different accounts for their personal or financial gain. The involved person whose identity has been hacked would be blamed for all the activities done from the id. The involved person would have to go through rigorous ordeal for managing and proving that they do not have any role in these criminal offensive activities. Threat on National Security: The identity theft could also affect the national security of the state. It has been seen that the information system of national security has also faced the issues by the misuse of information and images of high ranked officials (Cochrane, 2012). Some of the national security agents have been impersonated by fake ids made by using the images available on the internet. Identity theft is a major issue that has reasoned in affecting the privacy of the person. These issues are prevalent in the identity theft by using the image provided over the internet. False financial transactions: The identity theft of the person makes them liable for financial frauds. The person impersonating the fake identity might end up making false transactions on their pretext (Staksrud et al., 2013). It is a major ethical issue faced by the people due to the misuse of identity. The person hacking the identity would end up spending money on behalf of the person. It is a major criminal offense as it not only affects the person by harassment, but also harms them financially. Hence, the ethical dilemmas of the identity theft are harassing people by misusing their identity, threat on National Security, and false financial transactions. These errors have major role in harming the person mentally by harassing them on basic level, physically by the efforts they have to make for proving that they have no hands in the frauds or faults made, and financially(Livingstone, 2014). The errors can be rectified by making sure that their identity could not be impersonated by anyone else. The privacy of their personal images and information must be protected from misuse. Other Issues With the help of digital photography, the processes of capturing and utilizing medical images have become easier. In hospitals, digital photography system is used for depicting death, diseases injuries of patients. The digital photography in hospitals has several ethical issues. An individual has certain fundamental right for the privacy of their image. Unauthorized publication of any image can cause both social and legal problems (Greensmith Green, 2015). For example disclosure of abortion, pregnancy, plastic surgery if occurs unknowingly then it can create problems to the patients. Many problems may occur to a patient if their medical photography is not handled by the hospital properly. If the photograph taken is not appropriate then there is a chance to harm the patient. The use of photography is an integral part of medical surgery in hospital, which has raised many liability issues. The liabilities issues occur as sometimes are photographed without their consent or knowledge. There are number of legal issues of photography in plastic surgery practices. The changing nature of health care has created several challenges and opportunities before the health care professionals (Hazell, 2011). The patients can suffer from ethical problems if the reports or photographs of the patients are not handled by the authority of the hospital properly. Sometimes the authority of the hospital became careless and the photograph of the one patient is provided to the other individual (Cochrane, 2012).This will not only create ethical issues but also occur a situation of heath risk to those patients. It is also very much necessary that the hospital must maintain confidentiality of the data and information of the photographs of different patients in order to maintain ethics inside the premises of the hospital. Photography of the patients must be taken with the consent in order to maint ain the law and ethics in the hospital. Hence, the ethical dilemmas are harassing people by misusing their individuality, threat on National Security, and false financial transactions (Staksrud et al., 2013). These problems have major role in harming the mental health of the individual by harassing them on basic level, physically by the efforts they have to make for proving that they have no hands in the frauds or faults made, and financially. it is always recommended that youngster and elders must investigate about the site on which they are uploading or posting their pictures. Twitter uses the benefits of a post without sharing it with its users. The facebook and twitter must use proper licensing and authentication technique in order to avoid issues related with copyright or intangibility. The ethical issues faced by the images posted over social media can be classified into misusing images for creating profile in some other sites, editing of the images for personal gain, and compromise of privacy and confidentiality (Wi lliams et al., 2013). The ethical issues related with the images of the children can be solved by taking proper measures. The individuals who use the pictures for illegal activities must be penalized. The entire factor would be helpful in minimizing the ethical issues of the images of the children. Conclusion It is concluded that digital images are facing many ethical issues. The main ethical issues that are faced by the digital images are in the social networking sites. The images posted by the people can be shared or misused by some other individuals, which arises a number of ethical issues. For example, revelation of abortion, pregnancy, plastic surgery if occurred then it can generate troubles for the patients. Many problems may occur to a patient if their medical photography is not handled by the hospital properly. It is analyzed that the picture of that child can be used for illegal practices such as bullying. The confidential information of the kids can be accessed from the social networking sites by the kidnappers. Images of the children must be kept secure so that they do not have to face situations or problems due to illegal activity on their pictures on the social networking sites. The concerned individual whose individuality has been hacked would be responsible for all the activities done from the id. The involved individual would have to go through rigorous ordeal for running and proving that they do not have any role in these illegal offensive activities. There is major low-grade complexion problem faced by the people with minor disadvantages on their images. Many individual have started using Photoshop for modifying images. The image adjustment and correspondence have largely affected the quality of image with resizing and toning options. The edited and images of people made a false impact on the others. 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