Streamingblogger

They say that you can find just about anything on the Web… Well lately, a guy streamed a live video of his wife giving birth to their baby (http://qik.com/video/1023674). Strange don’t you think?! It seems as though daddy ignored the advice of the attending nurse, who asked him to stop filming in the surgery room (some hospitals forbid filming in surgery rooms). The most part of the video shows a woman’s head and sections of the surgery room. We don’t see the actual “birth process” or the baby. Needless to say that this stream has generated mixed opinions… But, it gets worse! Back in August 2007, a man streamed thirteen minutes of his baby’s birth live on Ustream… showing everything (http://www.ustream.tv/blog/2007/08/09/birth-20-another-ustream-first/).

I haven’t done a complete search on the subject, but I’m sure that there are a lot more of these videos on the Web. People in favour of freedom of speech (or posting content in this case) will say that users can post whatever they want, as long as it isn’t offensive. We are free to view their content or not. True… A baby’s birth is an incredible moment, no doubt about that, but I can’t help but think that such a moment should be lived in private, as a family, not with god knows how many viewers! For people who are curious and want to view a baby’s birth, why not find an educational documentary on the subject?! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that these guys are showing offensive content. I know for a fact that there is much worse content out there: filmed accidents, tragedies, child pornography, etc. I just think that a baby’s birth shouldn’t been streamed live on the Web.

They are surely lots of users that agree with the live streaming of a baby’s birth, and lots that disagree. The fact of the matter is that this story just proves one thing: with all the people ready and willing to share their social life on the web, social networks won’t die anytime soon…