To be uneasy about this new craze of "spotted <insert city name>" on Facebook?

[SpotTheSpot]

I don't know if anyone else has come across these new pages popping up everywhere. In a nutshell, the page admin receives messages from people in a particular city about someone they've "spotted" and the admin posts the comments on their timeline anonymously.

For my city, I'm shocked at how racist people are. There are loads of comments being posted about Asians. There's crude comments about women and men who work in local establishments. It's disgusting.

Surely this is somehow illegal? I find a lot of the comments slanderous too, naming people and people being tagged in crude comments.

What do you all think?

YANBU - I have noticed loads come up for oxford and noticed the same as you!!

That sounds horrid.

That's the page I was referring to. It's like all the racists of Oxford have ventured onto the page. Never knew people were so backward in their thinking here, and I've lived here my whole life!

There's a lot for universities as well, slagging anyone off for virtually anything it seems. I'd expect better of young, supposedly intelligent people. How cruel.

I've seen a few posting up pics of bad/anti social behaviour and calling the people out on it. The one upside of these pages maybe..

Spot it popped up on mine a few times over the last few days - have to say I think alot of it is discusting!

Shelly, not that I agree with naming and shaming, but there are innocent people with obvious sen or old people or workers in shops being mocked on the page. Then there are all these lewd sexual comments particularly about women who work in local shops. Anyone can go and ogle at these women now. What makes me angry is that it's all anonymous.

Now they've moved onto putting up pics of people without them knowing a pic has been taken. Then there are loads of comments underneath laughing at the people in the picture. What a load of shit.

Is it within the law to post photos of strangers online without their consent?

Or legal, even!

it is legal

unfortunately.

I don't understand. Spotted doing what? Surely it's not just a page of 'spotted- a man walking in the park' or whatever? I feel thick

Oh, I totally agree with you that mocking people, putting up pics of innocent people and posting racist, sexist etc comments is disgusting!!
After seeing your post and not ever having seen any of the 'Spotted' pages, I did have a look and thought some of the posts ( I think it was Cardiff) were doing quite a good job of inadvertently highlighting places not to go due to anti social behaviour. I'm not against naming and shaming and think that if some of these drunken/yobbish idiots are on display, they MAY think twice about doing what they do in future.

I've had a look at the nearest one to me, there's only one photo and the comments aren't too bad but I can see it's a recipe for disaster once people start posting really nasty stuff. Hopefully the admins won't post anything really hurtful

I agree with you to an extent shelly, some people with a conscience will stop, but the way people are getting their 5 minutes of fame on the pages, I feel it will just egg on the younger generation.

I read a post a few hours ago about coke snorting girls from a local secondary. Then there were loads of comments about people wondering who it was and names were tagged.

somedayma basically, people see someone they think is either pretty/handsome/strange they post to the admin crude and lewd comments about this person they've seen and its posted on the page. Then people who think they know who it might be tags them.

Yes, I see your point. There will be the few that enjoy being 'spotted'.
I hate to say it, but I do watch some of the shows on tv latenight. (StreetCops etc) and the louts on there often seem to think it's a badge of honour!

Maybe Shelly.

But if someone posted a pic of me because I am overweight and hence just fodder for the masses, it would really upset me. I would say more people feel like me than the people shown on StreetCops!

(For a start, they would have signed something showing they agree to be shown)

Jackiethefart Totally agree with you. Earlier up, I said I disagreed with the majority of reasons for posting on these sites. I said the ONLY upside was if someone was shamed into changing their loutish ways. That has nothing to do with being overweight.