Cellphone Cameras and Public Shaming

The Montreal Gazette has a feature on the growth of "cyber-shaming" using cell-phone cameras and the web:

Hey you, the scofflaw parked illegally in the handicapped spot. Smile! You're in cyberspace. And that goes for all you other wrongdoers out there: the jerk parked in a bike lane, the flasher on the metro, the negligent nanny, the litterbug, the loud-mouth cellphone user and the reckless driver.

It's time for your close-up.

Public shaming isn't just for celebrities any more, thanks to a new crop of websites that expose those who commit crimes and misdemeanours that often used to go unpunished.

Cellphone cameras and the World Wide Web have ushered in a new era of cyber-vigilantism in which offenders risk instant, global notoriety.

"People really are more afraid of appearing on a website than getting a $150 ticket," said Fred (not his real name), a former Montrealer living in New Zealand and founder of caughtya.org. The site blows the whistle on people who steal handicapped-parking spots by posting photos and licence-plate numbers of illegally parked vehicles.

Parking offences are just one of many transgressions that can land you in the modern-day equivalent of the pillory.

Link: All eyes on you,

Via Michael Zimmer.