Is Your Video Ethical?

By Author: Myrna Stephenson
Total Articles: 7
Comment this article

Is your video ethical? This doesn't mean giving 50p to charity for every person that views your online video. It means adhering to ethical standards in the content, production and promotion of your video.

So, is your video ethical? Have you even thought about its ethics?

Content
Here are five issues that are worth considering during your video production process;

1) Ensure that no one featured in your video is being bullied in any way. This includes intimidation, harassment, assault or causing harm

2) Respect other people's privacy, and don't video a private individual without their permission

3) Do not plagiarise other people's content and pass it off as your own. Give credit where credit is due

4) Pay special attention to the rights of children and never video a minor without the expressed permission of their parent or guardian

5) Respect others' right of publicity (and copyright) and refrain from using a person's image or likeness for commercial or promotional purposes without first securing their ...
... permission

Production
Some of the ethics of production are implicit within the content guidelines above, but in addition you should consider where, and with whom, you film the video.

For example;
1) Not damaging or disrupting the environment for people or wildlife while filming

2) Paying fair wages to people working on your production

Promotion
It's easy to think that once the video has been completed and you're satisfied it's ethical - then your boxes are ticked. But this is not the case. There are ethical considerations in the promotion of your video too.

For example;
1) Are you attracting appropriate viewers? This is the classic "alco-pops aimed at children" problem. If your product or service is not suitable for children then make sure that your promotion isn't aimed at them

2) Comply with the Community Guidelines and Terms of Service of the video-sharing-sites that you use

3) Disclose your relationship. If you're recommending a product then be open about your relationship to it

4) Don't mislead the viewer. In other words don't promote the video with false headlines, images, keywords, or other copy that misleads the audience as to the actual content and purpose of the video

Clearly ethics is a huge area with many opportunities for disagreement and debate. And it's true that what one person may consider is unethical, another is perfectly happy with. So the key here is to define what ethical behaviour means to you and then pledge to uphold that behaviour in the content, production and promotion of your video.