Précis 2

The Kids Grow Up' turns the lens on home videos and the right to privacy  by Ann Hornaday

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/10/AR2011031005840.html

Are videos about children which their parents post online harmless or exploitative? Doug Block's documentary “The Kids Grow Up” about his daughter's final year at home before her leaving for college makes this question valid.
Lucy Block, a documentary filmmaker's daughter, has practically grown up in front of her dad's camera, and while being filmed seems perfectly natural to her, she occasionally snaps at her dad for trying to capture almost every moment of her life.

Even ground rules they have, like 'You stop filming me the moment I ask” do not seem to be a sufficient answer to the 'harmless of exploitative' question.

Framing the ethics

While a lot people find home made children videos hilarious, some of us consider them ethically dubious at best and exploitative at worst, since they irrevocably expose the children's privacy to the world.

Douglas Bock's documentary also provokes questions about the relationship between filmmakers and their subjects, especially about the subjects' informed consent and right to privacy. There are no easy answers here, but the ground rule seems to be that filmmakers should be particularly protective of their subjects.

'Uncharted territory'

Parenting bloggers provide a useful insight into the problem of thin red line dividing entertainment/educational values from objectifying people for public consumption. While they see their blogs as a means of helping and supporting other parents, they realize they sacrifice their children's privacy in the process. The question is, how far they can go, and it will need to be asked over and over again.

Vocabulary:

1. mordant (adj, formal) - mordant wit/satire/humour - unkind and insulting humour that is also funny [= biting]: The play's mordant comedy makes for compelling viewing.
2. posterity (n, formal) – all the people in the future who will be alive after you are dead: This priceless work of art must be kept for posterity. Posterity will remember her as a woman of courage and integrity.
3. omnipresent (adj, formal) – present everywhere at all times: seeking some much-needed relief from the omnipresent noise of the big city; The problem is omnipresent and unavoidable.
4. fraught (adj) – full of anxiety or worry, laden, difficult, tense: These issues, touching on life, death, procreation, and access to health care, tend to be ethically fraught. He had a fraught meeting with his estranged wife to discuss a divorce settlement.
5. to attest (v, formal) – to show, prove, or state that something is true or real (usually + to): The popularity of the treatment attests to its effectiveness. I can attest that what he has said is true.
6. to abound (v) – to exist in very large numbers: Rumours abound as to the reasons for his resignation. Examples of this abound in her book.
7. op-ed (n, countable, AmE), short of 'opposite editorial' – an essay in a newspaper or magazine that gives the opinion of the writer and that is written by someone who is not employed by the newspaper or magazine: an op-ed page/article/piece/writer; She wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.
8. blithe (adj) – seeming not to care or worry about the effects of what you do: a blithe disregard for the facts; He seems blithely unaware of how much anger he's caused.
9. daunting (adj) - tending to make people afraid or less confident : very difficult to do or deal with: Few things are more daunting than having to speak in front of a large crowd. Shakespeare's plays can be daunting for a young reader.
10. to incur (v, formal) - o cause yourself to have or experience (something unpleasant or unwanted) : incur expenses/debt; What did he do to incur such wrath?