The leak of CCTV footage from the Ram bar on the night of Exeter’s Safer Sex Ball has raised a number of important questions. The footage, which went viral and was circulated around popular messaging service WhatsApp, shows students participating in heavy petting and oral sex. Despite the fact this took place at the SSB, students’ engagement in sexual activity and open promiscuous behaviour for once isn’t bearing the brunt of the criticism.
The fact that the confidential footage on the CCTV monitor was able to be irresponsibly filmed is worrying enough. However, what concerns me more, is the complete lack of responsibility and consideration which certain members of our student population have demonstrated in the aftermath of the person idiotic enough to film and share the footage in the first place.
This minority of students gave the impression that they were more than willing to post the controversial video online, thus significantly increasing the number of people who would have been able to watch it. An illusion was created that it would appear for all to see at a certain time. This naturally created intense interest in the website on which it would have been published. But it never turned up.
If you look at the ‘nitty gritty’ of the situation, it would have been illegal for the students to publish the video in the first place. Seeing as it didn’t even appear, despite their promises, I suggest the students already knew that.
It seems to me that deliberately instilling the belief that the video was going to be publicly published, whilst knowing outright that it wouldn’t, makes you think that the whole stunt was just that – a publicity stunt. An enticing advertisement was tolled across the Facebook and Twitter nation of Exeter students and the goods were not even remotely delivered.
I don’t know about you but I feel conned and disappointed. An illusion was created, the immense influential power of journalism flaunted it, and then that same power had the audacity to reprimand those who bought into its advert in the first place. Furthermore, absolutely no consideration was given to the students in the video or the reputation of the University. It’s unfortunate that the Guild are once again having to face the backlash of something related to the SSB.
Two very different sides of the same coin of observation and censorship have been freshly polished for us to inspect.
The need for CCTV is undoubtedly important – it protects us and is vital for safety. For the vast majority of the time, we give no thought to the fact that hundreds of cameras are watching us every day, because we have no need to. It generally doesn’t interfere in our lives. But here is an example where CCTV and the footage that it inevitably produces in its role as a safety aid, have been recklessly used to cause controversy and harm, rather than protect those caught in the camera’s gaze.
Free speech and the circulation of balanced and trustworthy reportage are equally important too, but it numbs my brain to think that there was even the slim possibility that the footage could have appeared online in the first place. How it was possible that a small minority of ill-advised individuals was able to create such a damaging illusion, which consequently threatened the students involved in the video and the University itself deeply distresses me.
A full investigation is underway.
By Kitty Howie
exeposedev 