LO3: Legal and regulatory (P4)

LO3: Legal and regulatory (P4)

For this you must think about what you are producing, look at the main regulatory bodies or legal issues (e.g. PEGI, copyright, age, data protection act, PRS etc).

You must then detail how you have considered these regulatory and legal issues and what will do to abide by these.

You must cover at least FIVE legal/regulatory.

Obscene publications Act

Illegal to publish content that may negatively influence readers/ audience.

To avoid breaching this act it will be ensured that the all the content is suitable for the public and the age of those using the app, meaning there will be no explicit content featured. In addition to this, the content of the app will no include topics that would be slanderous or have a negative impact. However, the app would feature a forum and comments section which would be harder to regulate and those using the app could post what they wanted. Therefore, to try minimise the risk of breaching this act it will be routinely checked and measures put in place to ensure the content is suitable for the target audience, such as blocking the use of specific words or terms meaning that may be deemed offensive so they cannot be posted. 

Libel Law

Illegal to publish defamatory content about a person or publish untrue information.

To avoid this law i intend to not publish false information, this will be achieved by using reliable sources in addition to referencing all sources used. It is also crucial information is reliable and accurate also to allow the app to function properly with regards to the health data aspect. Furthermore, i will avoiding portraying any bias or negative aspects to the sporting personalities that may have a harmful impact on there lives or career, again to avoid this or any prosecution the articles and segments within the app will be checked and approved by the interviewee them self.

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act

The exclusive right to make copies, license of a piece of work by a creator. Protected for the lifetime of the author or for a period 70 years after death.

Consequently, permission will be needed from the models to use there image in the app and therefor will have to sign a consent and release form. This allows the image to be used freely within the app and other material. Permission may also be needed from brands featured in the app, words/ extracts featured in the articles and location permissions. To avoid potential risk of being prosecuted for breaching the copyright act, I will ensure the assets sourced have the correct permissions and license. Or alternatively I will source material that is royalty and copyright free, meaning they can be used freely without consent and risk of being prosecuted.

However, the majority of design work will be created by myself and will therefore not infringe on any copyright laws. For example the icons, layout and format of the piece.

The use of sound in the product.

Within the app they may be sound used to support the visuals, if music was to be used a license would be required. One common way that this is achieved is by buying a license from PRS. PRS is a regulatory body that pays royalties to their members when their work is performed, broadcast, streamed, downloaded, reproduced, played in public or used in film and TV. If a license or permission is not sourced this could result in prosecution. 

Data protection Act

The data protection act controls how personal information is used by organisations, businesses or the government. Within my proposed app there will be sensitive information about the users held, to allow the app to have the most functionality. This would include sensitive data such as health stats and measurements which are used to provide calorie counts and custom progress reports. Subsequently, it must be made sure that the information is, used fairly and lawfully, used for limited specific stated purposes, kept for no longer than is absolutely necessary, handled according to peoples data protection rights and is kept safe and secure. If these are not strictly followed it could result with severe repercussions and legal prosecutions due to the sensitivity of the information held.  

LO3: Ethical, social, moral (P4)

LO3: Ethical, social, moral (P4)

For this you must think about what you are producing, look at the main ethical, social and moral  legal issues (e.g. representation of groups if using images, using a range of language options and why if an app or game etc. Not encouraging anti-social behaviour, think about age of audience ).

You must then detail how you have considered these social, ethical and moral and what will do to abide by these.

You must cover at least FIVE social/legal/moral issues.

fat shaming

languages

use different age, genders, race 

Within my app there would likely be a variety of ethical, social and moral issues that would be raised. For example the representations of age, gender and race. It is essential that the app does not disctrimate against gender, race or age in order to not cause offence and better appeal to a wider audience. Subsequently, the imagery used within the app should represent a variety of races, ages and genders by using a variety of models throughout the app, this minimises the risk of offence and broadens the appeal to the target audience as users would have someone they could relate to in some form.

Other social issues that could arise as part of this use of this would be the accessibility. Similar to that of using a variety of models to appeal to wider audience, a variety of language options should also be implemented into the app. By not restricting the app to one main language, it gives for more flexibility when being used by those from other countries or those persons where by English is not their chosen language.  Subsequently, the option to choose a language from the most common alternative languages would be provided, this would translate all the content within the app making it easy to use. Furthermore, this could increase the reach of the app, the ability to change languages could make it appeal to other countries wider than intended UK market, therfore making it more popular with a wider user base. Other accesbilty elements which could be implemented would be text to speech or high contrast options for the visually impaired. 

Security would also be an issue that would have to be considered. Due to my intended app being a health app, security is essential. To function the app would collect and hold health data from the user in order to provide accurate information with regards to things such as calorie counts and progress reports. All this information recored would be considered sensitive data and therefore it would have to be protected in order for it not to used by any other persons or for any other use other than the app.  As a result, the app and information stored would have to be encrypted and only stored for the minimum amount of time necessary. 

Other ethical issues that could be encountered as a result of the production of my app in addition to representations of genders and races within the sport, would be to not body shame or promote unhealthy lifestyles. Therefore, in order to not influence users the app should not glamorise drug or supplement taking which can be present within the sporting industry. Additionally, the forum side to the app would also have to be monitored in order to ensure non of the users themselves are promoting this or being discriminatory against the users.

Safety aspects should also have to be considered, the app would  likely be glamorising the sport and therefore encourage users to take part in the sport. This could result in injury for the inexperienced. In an attempt to minimise this, the necessary health and safety guidance would be provided in addition to warnings and possible age restrictions.