MPs have been suggesting that film style age classifications be applied to video content uploaded to YouTube. And that a TV style watershed be in place for content containing violent or pornographic images.

Why? Videos involving school children from Hertfordshire fighting and a woman being raped have rightly been removed from YouTube following complaints from the public.

So who should be responsible for the content on social media sites such as YouTube?

YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips. YouTube’s terms and conditions are explicit about the uploading of this type of content being unacceptable.

MPs argue that operators of sites such as YouTube should deploy technology to screen clips and effectively censor them (see Times Online for more information)

The problem with this is that YouTube and sites like it merely reflect what is going on in our society. Censoring social media doesn’t really address these problems, it merely hides them. And where does this end - should socially inappropriate conversations in the pub be censored too?

The best way to manage this is to allow the social network to moderate itself by having a clear reporting mechanism for content considered inappropropriate.

And for concerned parents who want to protect thier children from inappropriate content I completely agree with Will Rhodes. When my children are old enough to surf the web, I will be monitoring their activity until they are able to make their own decisions about whether watching a “happy slapping” video is appropriate or not. If I’ve done my job properly they’ll either ignore it or report it…..