A reasonable effort to manage on-line, personal content

A portrait Eaton Rapids Joe.  Maybe.

My family had our annual Christmas party.  Toward the end of the party some of the photographers were flipping through the images they had collected.  One of the images was of my brother, napping.  Whether by accident or by design there was an empty "adult beverage" container in the frame.  The person who took the photo thought it would be humorous to post the photo on social media.

And then one of the adults spoke up
The hostess of the party is in one of the counseling professions and she shared her profession's "Code of Conduct".

The Code of Conduct, as I understand it, is slightly different than the Code of Ethics.  The Code of Ethics is compact and more theoretical.  The Code of Conduct is more concrete and specific.

The hostess said that her profession requires that "reasonable effort be made to 'manage' on-line content."  For example, consider the options that are available to "manage" on-line content. 

• The person in the photo can verbally request that the image be removed.  If that works then the problem is solved.  If it does not work....
• He can follow-up by requesting that the image be removed via email...which provides evidence that he is making an effort.
• He can request that the image be "un-tagged" so it is not linked to him.  Again, email is the preferred medium
• He can dilute the images on the internet by flooding it with plausible substitutes.  Then he can ask friends to "click on" the benign pictures to "bury" the undesirable image.

The reason the counseling professions are so concerned about on-line content is that much of the value in counseling is the result of the relationship that the counselor and the patient.  That relationship can be poisoned if the patient sees pictures of the counselor drunk or doing lines of coke or grinding on a person of the opposite sex.