Ethics about YouTube and coverage of minors

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on October 8, 2007 at 12:09 PM

The Press Complains Commission (PCC) cleared The Northwich Guardian, after it carried on its website YouTube footage posted by a 15-year-old-boy who had been involved in a criminal act.

The boy had posted a video that showed a group of youths throwing firebombs at a freight train.

The paper also ran stills from the YouTube footage in its print edition. The PCC code states that children under 16 "must not be interviewed or photographed on issues involving their own or another child's welfare" without adult consent.

But in this case, since the boy posted the video on YouTube himself and the paper had used information circulated by the perpetrators, the PCC found the paper to be in its right.

“Its code was not designed to prevent the exposure of an antisocial or criminal act taking place in public where there was a public interest in publicising it, the watchdog said,” the Media Guardian reported.

Source: The Guardian