“YouTube has no ethics, it's been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money.” Do you agree?

I agree to a large extent. YouTube is a popular free video sharing website which allows users upload, view, and share video clips. Videos can be rated, and the average rating and the number of times a video has been watched are both published. There are a wide variety of videos being uploaded, from comedy to cartoon shows. Since there are no restrictions to what kind and type of video content is uploaded on the site, arguments and critiscism arises.

Youtube has social impact on the society. As a welll-known site, Youtube has a wide range of viewers aging from young to old. The most frequent visitors of the site are probably youngsters. Inappropriate materials such as ponography videos maybe posted up on the website. Youngsters are able to watch these videos without being stopped. This is worrying as juvenile delinquents are on the rise. These videos are not meant for these teenagers to watch since they are not mature enough. There are also cases whereby videos depicting violence are uploaded. On June 1 2006, the evening ITV News bulletin reported that YouTube and sites like it were encouraging violence and bullying amongst teenagers, who were filming fights on their mobile phones, and then uploading them to YouTube. While the site provides a function for reporting excessively violent videos, the news report stated that communication with the company was difficult.(source: wikipedia) Although the videos may be flagged as inappropriate, can all obscene or violent videos be removed? Will Youtube ignore the social impact that these videos have on the society and just continue to allow such videos to be uploaded? There are too many videos being uploaded on the site, YouTube can only discover such video when someone flags the video as inappropriate material.

There are also issues pertaining to copyright infringement and bans of YouTube in certain countries such as Iran and Thailand. Youtube policy does not allow content not allowed by the United States copyight law to be uploaded. Even so, there are still large numbers of videos that violates the copyright law begin uploaded. Youtube management is unable to ensure and guarantee that all videos do not violate the law. Established company, Viacom demanded Youtube to remove 100,000 clips that contain copyrighted material owned by the company. It then went on to sue Youtube when terms could not be reached. There are certain videos that sparks conflicts between countries or videos that insult a country’s leader for example in the recent news, Thailand has banned Youtube ever since a video against King Bhumibol Adulyadej was uploaded. It was considered an insult to the Thais. Thus thailand has responded by banning Youtube. Videos may contain sensitive images or ideas that will spark religious conflicts or conflicts between countries. For example, Youtube was banned once in Turkey for hosting videos that insult the Turks and

With all these incidents, it is evident that Youtube does not do enough to stop certain videos from being uploaded. Although it is also the viewers responsibility to flagged any inappropraite materials uploaded, I believe Youtube could do a better job at preventing such incidents. Youtube is a site where people are able to enjoy and entertain themselves through the various videos but when it comes to legal matters, things can turn ugly.