What was the intent of making the videos llegal? was it by inference that one was illegally outside and subject to (theoretical) contamination ?
No it was about breaking the conditioning, the population was conditioned to think they were only safe in the underground environment, enjoying clouds was considered a step towards the natural world above.
A gateway drug if you will towards the abberation of wanting to experience the natural environment .
There is one class of citizen called the tracker, who venture out in massive wagon trains to survey the world above, and exterminate the mutes, descendants of surface survivors
But the wagon trains are salted with radioactive material, so trackers invariably get cancers and die young, thus the lie that the surface is unsafe is reinforced. The rad meters are rigged to operate in reverse, inside the train they show all clear, outside heavy radiation. There is also a reverse claustrophobia thing happening, trackers who get caught outside the train for an extended period cant handle all that open space, and can go into a catatonic state
But the ruling faction enjoys great power under the status quo and knows if the population were to leave the DUMB's and settle the now clean land above, they would lose that power.
So looking at clouds is a big no no, but something about them calls out to people. Once they see them they can develop an obsession with them.
So the topic is portrayed in the story like any other illicit subculture
When you mentioned liking looking at clouds, i was immediatly reminded of this facet of the books plot
