Editorial: Garbage Content
An explicit viral livestream highlights society's struggle with "garbage content"—material designed purely for views and shares without regard for harm, particularly to children and youth who may imitate such behavior.
A viral live stream of explicit sexual content posted on an avatar page reflects a critical crisis in digital society: the spread of "garbage content" designed solely to generate views, likes, shares, and viral momentum without regard for social consequences. Beyond obscene material, garbage content includes worthless, harmful material in exchange for online attention—such as explicit livestreams, violence, misinformation, public humiliation, risky challenges, and excessive vulgarity. These contents prioritize shock value and emotional provocation over substance and public benefit, violating morality, law, and others' rights while pursuing viral rewards rather than social responsibility.
The explicit clip currently facing criticism exemplifies garbage content, spreading sexually provocative material easily accessible to large audiences, particularly children and youth. It promotes the harmful misconception that extreme or illegal behavior can generate fame and income online. The damage of garbage content is now spreading into society's behavior patterns, particularly among children and youth lacking digital maturity. Such content may lead to imitation, normalization of immoral acts, and the use of violence and sexual content as attention-seeking tools, degrading social standards and compromising the overall quality of online media spaces.
Addressing garbage content is not the sole responsibility of police or government. While cyber police accelerate investigations and legal action, coordinating with Facebook to enforce stricter community standards remains important, the critical factor is cooperation from all social media users. They must consume information responsibly, refusing to like, share, or support illegal or provocative content. Simultaneously, families, schools, and society must build digital immunity, teaching children and youth media literacy to distinguish appropriate from inappropriate content, protecting them from boundless viral culture. Everyone in society must collaborate to create a safe online environment, refusing to support garbage content that not only degrades social quality but also risks encouraging imitation and causing problems beyond what society anticipates.
