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.
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Yep that’s it solved...was probably part of his forest gump thing he did add caption “never know what your gonna get at Mad Monday” especially at a Manly one :)
The problem is Snake that by looking at the photo's of Lane its pretty easy to tell he was well under the table with the consumption of booze when it was taken, a big laugh in and the carry on's is the cause of it, but it still the aspect of too much grog and likely mixed glasses of goodness knows how many types is consumed and he and the happy snapper likely have no idea of it being taken, and likely when they come back to life from an unconscious state of ether world unknowns, they would likely have no idea about the snap that was taken, & more than likely Lane would not have known or have the abilitiy to remember it happening or for that matter anything after the first hour or two.
Phil, a reason I refuse to use social media of any type is I was caught once when replying to a question & invitation to join a supposed closed group of ex/retired workers that I worked with for several years before moving out of Sydney, I was not told that it was an open group, & I had no reason to think otherwise for around 2 months when I started to get huge daily emails from people I never knew, I soon found out that it was a facebook centred group, & I tried to opt out, it took around 2 years to finally be rid of it.
While these social medium sites have some advantages according to many people I know, I also know of no one that has not been caught out in some way or another by them. Thing is that the Shawn Lane incident was likely a ticking time bomb and the person who took the photo, holding on to it until the appropriate time to release it in the open as has happened should be a warning to everyone and anyone about the dangers of so called fun filled and private chat sites and general social media online and thumbs machines world we are all caught up in one way or another.
While this may not go down well owing to the Aussie Male not dobbing in, I believe that Lane has to come out with the name of the person who took the photo in the first place, he also needs to come clean as to whether he took any of it, or just binned it. A bit of honesty should help him, as he has got a good record for working with the underpriveged and other community groups since being at the eels,
I also tend to believe that if any sort of ban and punishment is put in place against him by the NRL, I sincerelly believe the club should take the matter up with their legal team based on the so called confidentiality aspect of that social media web site and Lanes privacy was breached and the photo put out in the public arena without his consent. The person responsible should be made a case of by the police and any others affected.
Manly also needs to come to the support of Lane as he was still under their contract at the time, they actually should be held accountable for not having proper supervision by Manly club officials on that mad monday outing as well.
Nothing wrong with 8 balls
So I'm really coming at this, not from the perspective of Shaun Lane or Parramatta but as a father and a citizen.
I don't buy the line that "do something dumb, pay the consequences". All over the place, our society acknowledges that young people do dumb things and we legislate or create rules and structures that essentially protect them from themselves. We do this in our driving laws, drinking laws, etc.
As a father of a 15yo and 12yo, I know how much stuff kids put out on social media, and we can all see for ourselves that pretty much everything is photographed and chronicled digitally, and I'm sure there are a whole bunch of us here, that are really glad we grew up in a much simpler age.
I know from my experiences, I'm absolutely paranoid about anything I put down in text, because I recognise the potential for it to be used against me, and I make a point of having negative interactions in person if possible, but if not on the phone. And to be honest, I hate it. I'd love to be able to always write down what I really think, without worrying who is going to see it, and where might they re-post it.
I'd like my kids to enjoy themselves, make the kinds of mistakes that all kids make, learn from it as we all did, and not really run the risk of having it follow them around for the rest of their lives. How many election candidates had to drop out of the running from the most recent election because of various social media posts from many years ago. Fast forward this scenario to 20 years time and the only people who will be willing to life their head above the parapet will be nuns.
If there is some type of fear factor that relates to the action of putting into the public domain, something that wasn't mean to be in the public domain, and for which your action causes injury, then people might just think about it, and end up rationalising, yeh nah. Right now, all of the "responsibility" and the negative outcomes falls upon the "subject" rather than the dog who has violated someone's trust and privacy.
Government and laws exist to address these injustices as they arise in our society and it's time for this one to be started taken seriously.
Tad, realise one thing. What you say about the future is already happening in many parts and countries around the world right now.
They know who the person is who leaked why can’t they name him as well
It was a dumb thing Lane done, he knows right from wrong, yes we have all probably done somthing stupid, but Lane should have known better. So now he will feel the pain.
Now it depends what is in the bag and who knows what it was.
If it was a player from another club, maybe us Eels fans would be sayin somthin different.
As long as Eels management are looking after Shauns welfare, the rest will play out with the NRL and the media.
The only reason “ revenge porn “ laws gathered so much momentum is because it was women being thr victim almost everytime . Stupid shit like this is men being destroyed almost everytime .
Think about it .
Women victims - catastrophic, let’s fix this
Male victims - tumbleweeds
Spot on. We could call it the "Dobbers wear Nappies" Law.
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