I don't like making excuses for footballers. Being a role model is part-and-parcel of any professional sportsperson, and generally they're paid well for their positions. When you choose to play professional sport, you not only commit to a certain standard on the field, but also off it.
However, the Shaun Lane saga that has come to public attention over the past 24 hours, shows that things have gone too far, and it's time for legislators to step in.
Not, on Shaun Lane, but on the person who has made public what is apparently a private Snapchat message.
We already have laws in place in relation to revenge porn. It is now a criminal act to share sexual images or video of a partner taken in a relationship. And so it should be.
But I ask, how is this any different?
The whole rise of Snapchat was centred around passing around images that would stay private. The very use of the platform implies that you do not wish for the images to be shared.
There is certainly no consent to share.
These images are damaging to Lane. There are damaging to his former and current employers.
Revenge porn laws relate to "intimate" images. However, as this case shows, it isn't limited to images of a sexual nature, that can harm the victim. It is near identical in its level of betrayal, malice and intent to injure.
This is where our outrage should be focused. In this "digital sharing" age we live in, it's important for society to have legislated laws around what is acceptable to share and to whom. I would argue strongly that any sharing of images, whereby those images were obtained based on a trusted relationship, should be criminalised.
And while I'm generally an advocate of freedom of the press, in lieu of their not being adequate laws around this area, I think all editors and publishers need to consider the merits of publishing materials obtained unethically.
Replies
Precisely! Someone said he privately shared this not a group message (as absolutely stupid as it was to do).
It’s totally irresponsible of the DT to publish, no one knows how an individual will take this being out there...it’s a huge deal to Shaun and those that love him.
Shame on the A hole who sent it and shame on the gutter rag the DT has become!
YES
The irony of taking an image that no one has seen, putting it on the front page of the newspaper and declaring it a public service.
They should be held accountable.
Journalists are ruining the game that employs them.
If they keep going there will be no NRL.
Maybe we should drug test them see how holy they really are
It made me laugh last night when you had Paul Kent and Phil Rothfield shaking their heads saying the game doesn’t need this. If you didn’t put it on the front page of the paper the game wouldn’t have cared!
The problem is they need this shit to stay relevent for another 5 mins, talk about a slow news day
Wasn’t it a just a couple weeks back the Kent ‘jokingly’ suggested to fletch/ Johnsy? that he use his old footy cards for the same purpose. On national tele ... very irresponsible I’d think. Fox sack him!
spot on. he did like an expert knowing how to snort coke with his fox mates. they all do it
The traditional media wonders why nobody takes them seriously any more. Is it any wonder when you read articles and there is almost always a hidden agenda behind them. This is not about freedom of the press, this is about generating discussion purely for the purpose of selling more papers. If the DT were so concerned by the use of drugs by NRL players, why don't they launch an in-depth analysis of the issue, not just singling out one player who has been dobbed in by someone trying to exact revenge. That would be more news-worthy and would be more in line with community expectations from the media.
The media are shooting themselves in the foot at a vulnerable time, and the DT is leading the charge. If they are not careful they won't survive this upheaval in the industry and we will no longer have to listen to their pathetic excuse for media coverage.
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