The documentary film Fantastic Machine was released in the UK on April 19, 2024. If you are a photographer or camera owner, I highly recommend you watch this movie. The Swedish producer Ruben Östlund has stirred the proverbial hornet’s nest by throwing the question out there with this film – if gun ownership requires a license, should camera ownership as well? In case you haven’t seen the trailer, check this out:
When the internet took over society like a plague and veritably eradicated the concept of personal boundaries and privacy, the camera has replaced the pen as the second most powerful weapon in the world. Social media channels and dark web have become the playground for perverts and twisted minds, but also people who have no qualms risking their lives or those of others for a selfie to share on Facebook or Instagram. Every day you see images of people dangling from trains, buildings or rocks to push harder to become an influencer and chase those likes. Lines have blurred between photojournalism and documentary film and photography and the pursuit of social media algorithms, endangering even wildlife and nature reserves. Self-preservation has become inconsequential for a particular age bracket, as long as it trends or goes viral. Let’s face it, anyone with a camera has the power to capture a moment or incident and launch it on the web with the most minute possibility of ever erasing the digital footprint thereof. Even if you delete your social media accounts and remove all the images, you have absolutely no control over who has captured the images online already with whatever tools or apps available. It is literally child’s play to take a screenshot on your mobile phone, tablet or laptop, tweak the images here and there and then re-upload them elsewhere.
Then are all the malicious websites that popped up to provide a platform for hate videos or revenge porn. If you have never watched Netflix’s docuseries The Most Hated Man on The Internet, I recommend you do, it is an eye-opener and quite frankly I felt nauseous after it. A lot of these revenge porn videos were filmed with mobile phones, web cams or hidden cameras, so the unsuspecting victims have no idea the video was created until it’s too late.
Closer to home, let’s look at Instagram. There is a trend that is spiralling out of control consisting of malicious accounts created by people who steal the names and identities of high profile individuals and shamelessly usurp the content as well. Blocking and reporting becomes redundant because they pop up again the following week. So what is the point of being a verified member if your content is going to be stolen anyway?
With guns it is easier to establish the laws and requirements for a license starting with an age requirement. The number of people who actually use a weapon is significantly lower than that of camera owners or users. Conversely, the number of 5-7-year olds owning a cell phone with a camera is spiking worldwide and these children know how to use the technology, so what hope is there to control it and protect them from predators? Take the alarming concept of Sephora Kids, where 10-year old girls are trying on make-up and skin products and uploading the videos to TikTok.
Pandora’s box is bigger than we thought, not to mention well and truly opened. Yes, the idea of requiring a license for cameras is a little ludicrous at this point in time, and I have to wonder what the psychological damage will be for those who have uploaded their entire lives to the internet. This is something that should have been conceived 40 or maybe even 50 years ago when there was no internet yet and cameras were still considered a luxury.
Objectively speaking, if that is even possible with this topic, a camera license requirement would not pose too much of problem to the consumer. It would, however, be the death of sales for the manufacturers. But as we have seen with guns, a license requirement has not discouraged people from purchasing weapons anyway, and I suspect that if the camera license ever came into fruition, it would be a similar scenario. The problem isn’t the camera per se, but rather the rampant and indiscriminate (mis)use of the built-in cameras in mobile phones. We dropped the ball in terms of vigilance and have become far too complacent. What does it say about society when restaurants have to bribe patrons with free wine if cell phones are not used at the table for the duration of the meal? The morbid fascination of filming and watching people having breakdowns is something I can’t wrap my head around either. Why would you film yourself at your most vulnerable moment and share it with the world?
I don’t disagree with Ruben Östlund, but I don’t see any company or country taking the lead on this one any time soon. Read the interview HERE and I guarantee it will plant a seed in your mind.
FrogDiva Thoughts 