The scary possibilities of Periscope and Meerkat

PERISCOPE wants to be the closest thing to teleportation possible. But the scary possibilities of Twitter’s new app are all too real for our kids.

iStock. 3 girls with a smartphone performing a selfie. For Bill Rule. Budget Busters.

I USE social media a lot, but I couldn’t say I understand it. Like most of us with our car, I drive it, but have no idea what’s going on under the hood.

But I have a 6 year old daughter who will one day (probably sooner than I think) get on social media, which is why I find the new live video screening apps, Periscope and Meerkat utterly terrifying.

To fill you in, because I’m so tech savvy, both Periscope and Meerkat allow the user to broadcast video footage in real time, of whatever they’re seeing right now.

On top of these images the viewer can post real time comments. Comments that, from general reports, begin with the banal, move swiftly onto the sleazy, and then often end up in the most disgusting of threats.

And it doesn’t take much to spark such a descent into hell. A blogger I know with the innocent twitter handle @MsShoegal attracted foot fetishist comments that quickly turned into creepy suggestions that no self-respecting shoe should ever have to be the subject of. And this was while streaming footage of her dog. Hardly provocative!

To keep women as users, Meerkat and Periscope go troll-hunting http://t.co/inwQiEcf85 (via juice.li) pic.twitter.com/UOJE7ibAlF

— DNB DevilNightBeats (@DevilNightBeats) April 12, 2015

The Periscope founders wanted to build the closest thing to teleportation possible. They imagine an inspiring and mind-broadening sharing of human experience, including seeing through the eyes of a protester in Ukraine or watching the sunrise from a hot-air balloon in Cappadocia. I can also see great benefits in the areas of education, the arts and news, not to mention the potential for some very engaging crafting tutorials.

But as with everything on the internet, it’s all fun and games until someone threatens to rape you. Or secretly broadcasts you while having sex with you. There are vast issues surrounding the protection of privacy that are very concerning.

And then there’s the bullying. My greatest fears are for our kids. The teenage girl who innocently broadcasts herself showing off her favourite frock, and is suddenly the subject of body shaming abuse in real time. Or the teenage boys who broadcast each other’s gym workouts, only to receive hideous homophobic slurs and suicide taunts.

Periscope, as with all social sites, suggests we simply block the trolls, but it’s an overly simplistic solution. Partly because by the time you’ve got around to blocking, at least one comment has already hit home. But also because when someone, maybe your gentle daughter or sensitive son, believes they are worthless, ugly, fat, stupid, or hated by everyone, they may not have the ability to disengage with their abusers. It takes a certain amount of strength to negate the thing that you actually deeply believe.

For young people, online social engagement isn’t narcissistic and needy, it’s standard currency at a time in their lives when they’re seeking validation. They’re working out who they are and what they like about themselves in the context of their ever-expanding world. It’s not a surprise this makes them vulnerable, it’s a given.

Therefore it should be a requirement that protections are automatically built into any new app. Maybe that spooky technology that allows advertisers to target their messages to us based on our online profile, could also target warnings to would-be trolls, or assistance to victims in crisis? Or more importantly, social media sites could start enforcing their own rules, rather than abdicating responsibility to the user.

I don’t know. As I said, I’m no expert. I can barely even remember my password. But my fears make me, as a parent, determined to raise my daughter as brave and kind and curious. To be a great laugher and an even better listener. To mind her manners where it counts but to always speak her mind. To have resilience, and to know that she alone is enough. Online and in the real world. I hope it’s enough to keep her safe. I really, really hope.

Jo Stanley is co-host of Weekend Breakfast on the TODAY Network nationally. Follow her on Facebook or on Twitter @realjostanley.