This page documents our policy on what content is acceptable to be included on AIDSvideos.org. It is a work in progress.
- Educational Videos
- Interviews
- Testimonials
- Speakers with a Religious Affiliation
- Alternate Listing at SafeForAll.org
Educational Videos
To be hosted on or linked to from AIDSvideos.org, educational videos must meet the following criteria:| Guideline |
Example
of Hypothetical Statement Meeting Guideline |
Example of Hypothetical Statement Not Meeting Guideline | Notes |
| scientifically and medically
accurate |
"The virus called HIV causes the
disease called AIDS." |
"HIV doesn't cause AIDS." "Colloidal silver cures AIDS." |
We will use the test for
"scientific" of "a consensus in the relevant scientific community," as
defined in the U.S. Supreme Court case Daubert vs. Dow Pharmaceutical. |
| up to date at time of submission |
"AZT is the only drug available
to treat AIDS." |
||
| encourages people to reduce
their risk of contracting / spreading HIV |
"If you are sexually active, be
faithful to a single partner and use a condom or dental dam (as
appropriate) every time." |
"Abstinence is the only way to
reduce your risk of contracting HIV." |
|
| tolerant and accepting rather
than stigmatizing |
"Every person's life has value." |
"AIDS is God's punishment on
[insert stigmatized group here]." |
|
| nonpolitical, nonpartisan |
"Increasing funding for needle
exchange programs might be one way to reduce the transmission of HIV." |
Statements directly supporting
or opposing particular candidates, parties, etc. |
Interviews
As part of our effort to educate people about HIV/AIDS and ways of addressing the problem, AIDSvideos.org will host interviews with people who are addressing the problem. Generally speaking, the criteria for interviews to be acceptable for hosting by/linking from AIDSvideos.org are the same as those for educational videos. However, there is some additional flexibility to accommodate the fact that these are in essence news interviews with individual people. Interviewees may describe the organizations they are part of and how those organizations are addressing HIV/AIDS. Such organizations might be secular or religious in nature. Interviewees may describe briefly how addressing HIV/AIDS fits in to their own belief system and/or their organization's mission statement. Therefore interviewees may make reference to their own or to their organization's belief system in the course of explaining their motivation on working for HIV/AIDS. As a result, interviewees may make some statements in this connection that are not scientific in nature or subject to scientific proof or disproof. For example, an interviewee might say "I believe that [religious figure] said we should heal the sick, and for this reason we are treating people at our hospital who have HIV/AIDS." This would be acceptable. On the other hand, a specific direct evangelical pitch encouraging people to convert to a specific religion or belief system (or disparaging other religions or belief systems) would not be appropriate for hosting on the web site.Keep in mind that speakers in interviews are solely responsible for the accuracy of their comments. If a speaker says "our organization spends 87% of its contributions on direct program aid with only 6% for fundraising and 7% for administrative overhead," the speaker is responsible for the accuracy of that statement, not AIDSvideos.org. AIDSvideos.org will not host videos with statements that we know to be false. However, we lack the resources to audit every statement by every speaker.
Testimonials
As part of our effort to educate people about HIV/AIDS and ways of addressing the problem, AIDSvideos.org will host personal testimonials by people who have been affected by HIV/AIDS. Examples include people who have HIV/AIDS and their friends, partners, loved ones, family members, and caregivers. Broadly speaking, the criteria for personal testimonials to be acceptable for hosting by/linking from AIDSvideos.org are similar to those for educational videos. However, there is significant additional flexibility to accommodate the fact that these are personal statements of experience and belief by individual people. As such, they may contain references to personal experience or personal belief systems that may not be scientific in nature or subject to scientific proof or disproof. For example, an interviewee might say:- "My faith in [religious figure] has helped me find the strength
to go on in spite of the difficult case of AIDS I have."
- "I believe that I have grown/changed/become stronger as a result
of the experiences I've had facing HIV/AIDS."
- "My life is much better now that I have stopped using heroin."
Speakers with a Religious Affiliation
AIDSvideos.org is open to religious believers and nonbelievers alike.
This immediately raises a difficult question: which religion(s) should
be eligible to have their speakers make a statement on this web site?Reasonable people would probably agree that Jim Jones, head of the "People's Temple" suicide cult in Guyana, would not be an acceptable speaker for the web site were he still alive today. Conversely, most would probably believe that statements by Mother Teresa might be good candidates for inclusion on the web site. So, where do we draw the line between Jim Jones and Mother Teresa?
If a speaker makes reference to their religion in their video or is affiliated with a religion, for that video to be eligible for hosting on or linking from AIDSvideos.org, the religion must meet the following criteria:
- Longstanding: the religion must have been in existence for at least 100 years.
- Nonviolent: the religion and its significant figure(s) must not encourage or condone the use of violence.
- Significant base of followers: the religion must have a signicant number of followers worldwide.
- Open belief system: the religion must make its tenets publicly known to all.
- Open places of worship: the religion's places of worship must typically be open to the public.
- Nonisolating: the religion must not encourage its followers in general to isolate themselves from nonbelievers.
- The religion must not meet the criteria for a "cult" defined in
the book Releasing the Bonds
by Steven Hassan. Note that these criteria are independent of a
religion's theology and instead define "cult" by reference to behaviors
such as cutting off contact with non-members.