P4: Describe how the proposal conforms to meet all legal and regulatory requirements
In the production of any media product there are always legal considerations to make. These considerations need to be well thought through before development even begins, as this will help to avoid legal trouble later down the line which could prove detrimental to the product and company. Here are a few legal considerations that I feel are applicable to this proposal, and how I will ensure that these considerations are conformed to:
Intellectual Property Act
The intellectual property act is an important law to consider in this proposal, as it governs the use and ownership of copyrighted material. This could be relevant to many aspects of the app. Majorly, this will need to be considered by the design team when they are creating visual design for the app. This could include logos, banners, icons, and other pieces of graphic design used in the app. If copyrighted material is used in this stage without paying royalties to the creator, then it would be considered copyright infringement and legal action could be taken against the team. In my proposal, I will avoid this potential issue by ensuring that all designs used are created by me, and mentioning that all designs used will be created by my design team. I will also ensure that if any copyrighted material is used that we have full permission to use the material.
Data Protection Act
The Data Protection Act is another set of laws that I believe are relevant to my app proposal. These laws are in place to ensure that user data put into an app or website is protected and not exploited or accessible to any party without the users permission. This data can include many things, but the kind of data most relevant to this app would be info such as banking details and personal health information. Banking details will be collected if a user wants to pay for a premium tier membership or something along those lines. As this is a fitness app, users will also be recommended upon creating an account to enter personal health details such as height, weight, medical conditions, desired body weight/type etc. This is information that will help the app fulfil it's purpose at being a personal trainer in a more personalised and effective way. This information needs to be protected under the data protection act. Other elements of account creation might be collected and as such also need to be protected e.g. passwords, phone numbers, etc.
In order to avoid these issues my proposal will specify that this data will remain inaccessible and private in accordance with the data protection act.
Intellectual Property Act
The intellectual property act is an important law to consider in this proposal, as it governs the use and ownership of copyrighted material. This could be relevant to many aspects of the app. Majorly, this will need to be considered by the design team when they are creating visual design for the app. This could include logos, banners, icons, and other pieces of graphic design used in the app. If copyrighted material is used in this stage without paying royalties to the creator, then it would be considered copyright infringement and legal action could be taken against the team. In my proposal, I will avoid this potential issue by ensuring that all designs used are created by me, and mentioning that all designs used will be created by my design team. I will also ensure that if any copyrighted material is used that we have full permission to use the material.
Data Protection Act
The Data Protection Act is another set of laws that I believe are relevant to my app proposal. These laws are in place to ensure that user data put into an app or website is protected and not exploited or accessible to any party without the users permission. This data can include many things, but the kind of data most relevant to this app would be info such as banking details and personal health information. Banking details will be collected if a user wants to pay for a premium tier membership or something along those lines. As this is a fitness app, users will also be recommended upon creating an account to enter personal health details such as height, weight, medical conditions, desired body weight/type etc. This is information that will help the app fulfil it's purpose at being a personal trainer in a more personalised and effective way. This information needs to be protected under the data protection act. Other elements of account creation might be collected and as such also need to be protected e.g. passwords, phone numbers, etc.
In order to avoid these issues my proposal will specify that this data will remain inaccessible and private in accordance with the data protection act.
P5: Asses the ethical, social and moral impact your proposal could have on stakeholders
Just as there are many potential legal issues that need to be considered in product development, there are significant issues that are outside the scope of the law that need to be considered and avoided. Typically, these issues come from ethical, social and moral controversial content and how the product may cause offence in these ways. Here are a few considerations of this nature that apply to my proposal:
Perpetuating Body Image Stereotypes
As my proposal is in the health and wellbeing area, more specifically in the area of fitness, it may run into ethical dilemmas such as perpetuating body image. As the app intends to suggest workouts in order to gain certain physiques, it may cause offence or make users feel bad about themselves for not looking like the models or physiques used in the app. This could end up causing backlash and outrage from users as body image and mental health surrounding body image are very sensitive subjects, particularly on social media in the last few years.
I will avoid this issue as much as possible by allowing users to select the kind of body type and goals that they would like to achieve before accessing the app. Therefore, it is the users choice what they are exposed to, and no particular body type is displayed in a 'negative' way. The app will purely display the individual "Goals" of the user and not perpetuate social stereotypes.
Perpetuating Body Image Stereotypes
As my proposal is in the health and wellbeing area, more specifically in the area of fitness, it may run into ethical dilemmas such as perpetuating body image. As the app intends to suggest workouts in order to gain certain physiques, it may cause offence or make users feel bad about themselves for not looking like the models or physiques used in the app. This could end up causing backlash and outrage from users as body image and mental health surrounding body image are very sensitive subjects, particularly on social media in the last few years.
I will avoid this issue as much as possible by allowing users to select the kind of body type and goals that they would like to achieve before accessing the app. Therefore, it is the users choice what they are exposed to, and no particular body type is displayed in a 'negative' way. The app will purely display the individual "Goals" of the user and not perpetuate social stereotypes.
Causing unhealthy obsession
Another potential ethical issue that I could encounter through the release of this app could be complaints of creating an unhealthy "Obsession" around fitness. Fitness obsession can happen especially when goals are set and users are obsessively calorie counting to lose or gain weight. These obsessions can turn very unhealthy by causing problems such as eating disorders or drug use such as steroids to maintain weight and muscle appearance.
This issue is in human nature, and a lot of the responsibility for staying healthy both physically and mentally is on the user themselves. Having said that, I will attempt to minimise this issue by ensuring that goals set within the app are reasonable and achievable in a healthy manner, and that exercises within pre-set routines are fulfilling and manageable as best as possible. The app will also not include calorie counting features, as I feel these features are what can lead to these issues, and not having them will make the app much more streamlined anyway.
Another potential ethical issue that I could encounter through the release of this app could be complaints of creating an unhealthy "Obsession" around fitness. Fitness obsession can happen especially when goals are set and users are obsessively calorie counting to lose or gain weight. These obsessions can turn very unhealthy by causing problems such as eating disorders or drug use such as steroids to maintain weight and muscle appearance.
This issue is in human nature, and a lot of the responsibility for staying healthy both physically and mentally is on the user themselves. Having said that, I will attempt to minimise this issue by ensuring that goals set within the app are reasonable and achievable in a healthy manner, and that exercises within pre-set routines are fulfilling and manageable as best as possible. The app will also not include calorie counting features, as I feel these features are what can lead to these issues, and not having them will make the app much more streamlined anyway.