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Slate Technology

What Next TBD: When Your Childhood Was Their Content

Slate Technology

Slate

Society & Culture, Technology, History

4.6636 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When someone posts a photo of you online without your consent, it should be easy to have it taken down or confront the person who posted it. But what if the poster is your parent, and it’s not just one photo, but your entire childhood that’s readily available online? And as social media algorithms evolve to push content in front of as many people as possible, what happens when a temper tantrum goes viral? Guest: Kathryn Lindsay, technology and culture writer. Host: Emily Peck If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Forgot your wallet? No problem.

0:03.0

With Samsung Wallet, everything you need is already on your phone.

0:08.0

Store your loyalty cards, earn rewards when you spend, and keep your travels smooth with boarding passes and train tickets ready to go.

0:15.0

You can even tap in on public transport, no unlocking, no digging around.

0:20.0

And yes, your payment cards can live here too, safely stored and ready when you need them.

0:25.0

Travel Light, live smart.

0:27.1

Set up Samsung Wallet today.

0:33.1

I just want to note that today is the first time that I've introduced myself with my legal name in three years because I'm terrified to share my name.

0:42.0

Because the digital footprint I had no control over exists.

0:46.3

I apologize.

0:49.8

That's 24-year-old Cam Barrett, testifying in front of Washington State lawmakers earlier this year.

0:56.1

Cam was there to support a bill meant to protect kids from being exploited online by their parents.

1:01.5

It's a deeply familiar problem for Cam, whose mother constantly shared intimate details about them on social media,

1:07.9

beginning when Cam was like nine years old.

1:12.3

At the time, the oversharing included chronicling Cam's first period. The posting continued after that, causing real harm.

1:19.5

At 12, I received a DM from a man who I didn't know who saw me riding my bike and told me he

1:24.0

followed me home.

1:33.2

Cam's experience contracting a MRSA infection in high school and subsequent hospitalizations were also chronicled in detail on social media.

1:39.0

But because of her mother's posting about it, when she went back to school,

1:42.8

no one wanted to sit near her. Even a teacher

1:44.9

made her sit at a separate desk. And she ultimately did drop out of high school. That's Catherine

1:50.8

Lindsay, a freelancer who writes about technology and culture. She recently wrote about young people

...

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