Digital Cameras

What is a Digital Camera?

A digital camera behaves like a typical camera except that it captures images using an electronic imaging sensor instead of film. The image is then stored in memory, or on some type of media like a memory chip or media card. Because the image is stored in the same way as computer data, in ones and zeros, it has tremendous flexibility in distribution and reproduction. Digital images can be viewed on a computer screen, a PDA screen, a cell phone display or printed out on paper. Some special types of papers allow the image to be transferred, after printing, on to other objects such as tee shirts. Digital images can be manipulated and altered with common software. Images can be distributed in all of the ways that data is distributed: email, floppy disks, USB Flash Drives (memory sticks), CD's, DVD's, and file sharing.

Digital camera capabilities are also found in cell phones and PDA's using a camera attachment. Web cams (cameras) are connected directly to the computer and can generate streaming video.

Digital imaging has sped up the sharing of images. No longer is it necessary to capture an image on film and then have it processed in order to view the image.

Dangers:

The easy generation, distribution and alteration of images makes it easy for some individuals to participate in cyberbullying. One tactic in cyberbullying is to take unflattering images of someone, and post them online for others to comment on in order to embarrass or humiliate the person. Often the image is altered, or morphed, to make it more embarrassing or humiliating. Image morphing uses special software to take parts of two different images and merge them into one image, i.e. putting the head of a horse on a dog's body.

The relative ease in distribution of images makes it very easy for inappropriate images (sexually explicit, violent and hateful) to be shared. Predators often use graphic images with their victims, gradually escalating the degree of sexual explicitness. Web cams are quite popular in the pornography world.

Resources:

The CyberBully site http://cyberbully.org
The WiredSafety site http://www.stopcyberbullying.com/