This happens to me often.

I enter a party and someone in the room rushes up to me and says one of two things. “If you are going to video this event Lois, you can’t put my grandchild on YouTube. My son is a very important company executive who has to deal with a lot of undesirables. The face of his child cannot be exposed for the world to see. We are afraid of terrorism or kidnapping.”

Or the next scenario is………….”Lois,” cough cough, “As you can see, I am not supposed to be at this party in the first place and I am not supposed to be in the company of so and so. I know that you like to take a lot of videos. I really can’t be on YouTube or any video you mail out to friends.”

If you think I am making this stuff up, think again. Either some people are so paranoid, or they really think I am not trustworthy. I really haven’t figured it out. All I know is that there are a few friends and family who feel they have to constantly remind me not to shoot them (I am talking video, not guns).

At first I was annoyed, but then I learned tolerance. Today, we all heard about the mass killing in Aurora, Colorado. Crazy things happen in our crazy world. People make me swear that I will not put them in an uncompromising or uncomfortable situation. It took some time, but I finally got it in my head that they needed and deserved my reassurance over and over.

Someone from YouTube must have been listening in, because just the other day the company announced a new “Face Blurring” feature “when footage requires anonymity.” It is a new tool that allows me (and you) to obscure faces within videos with a click of a button.

It is so easy that I am going to explain it in a few simple sentences. I will also show you what the video looks like before and after. I am going to embed it below. Rememmber, I explained embedding videos yesterday.

After you posted the video you took on your YouTube channel, you click on the new “Enhancements” tool. Proceed to “Additional Features” and click the “Apply” button below “Blur All Faces.” Caution: preview the video before you finalize it so you know what it looks like with the faces blurred. YouTube points out that when you save the changes to the video, a new copy is created with the blurred faces. It is up to you to decide whether you delete the original video.

For all the worry warts in my life, I promise to delete the original.

Original Video

Blurred Video