Veilig internetten; Dutch for ‘safe internet’; is an initiative launched by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate and National Cyber Security Centre of Netherlands. They recently introduced a new ad campaign favoured in the public interest which is worth a view.
Animals are lovable and can be sympathised with. Thus, they chose to use cats instead of people in the ads. In a way, it makes sense to use animals over humans. Silly animal videos go viral and manage to get a giggle out of us. An over sympathetic voice on behalf of those animals makes it hilarious and fun to share the important message with friends and family; which has been made available on the website.
Luna, Ollie and Droppie are the stars of the new ad campaign: “ Denk 2x na voor je iets deelt” (Trans: “Think twice before you share something”).
Ollie’s story
Ollie is assumed to be short-tempered by everyone who has watched his video. Entertainment is naturally drawn out of videos that are posted online. Also, we unconsciously do form judgements on others based on restricted knowledge. With the use of a funny cat video, the light here is being shed on street fights that go viral on social media; due to their violent nature. The person who never faces any aftermath of humiliation and judgement due to the video’s virality is the one who provokes the audience by posting such videos on social media.
This is an example of a violation of privacy.
Luna’s story
Poor Luna has been used as a representative of victims, of one too familiar cases of privacy violation; i.e someone else uploading intimate moments of another person online to humiliate them.
She fears she will be forever known as a tramp and spends her days ruminating on her favourite spot; the laundry basket. Perhaps, she will never recover from this.
Droppie’s story
Droppie feels betrayed by his owner; whom he had placed a lot of trust in. His owner uploaded an embarrassing video where he chickened out over a toast; for his entertainment. Now, Droppie has to suffer humiliation every time someone sees him. His feelings have been hurt. It looks like he will be needing external emotional support and sympathy.
