YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
Sex and Drugs Solicited on Website: School blog warning
What a shock it was to see a North Shore Times article that had Rangitoto warning their parents about the "dangers of the internet" in regard to "Bebo, the blogging site... made headlines last month after teenagers solicited sex and drugs on it". The article goes on to say "[Rangitoto College] is concerned that students may be putting themselves at risk through inappropriate use of the net" and "A female Rangitoto student had a cartoon picture of scantily-clad woman with the words 'so scandalous' next to her profile"
Well thank goodness we aren't on Bebo...
I think there is a 'fear' that has gripped adults in relation to these new online mediums, and this article has done nothing to curb these fears other than to say Bebo will now 'screen' the users better.
Firstly: these scandals didn't even happen inNew Zealand
Secondly: Don't these parents have a certain amount of accountability as their 12 year old surfs the web un-supervised in their own room.
Thirdly: The use of pornographic images/lewd language can't be any more than what I see on public toilet walls and pictures kids used to bring to school when they found 'dads special magazines'.
Finally: It only takes a person to sit down and explain to these parents not "The Dangers of the Internet" (as Rangitoto called their meeting) but "Responsible Use and Supervision of the Internet", explaining that this is an exciting medium with many amazing opportunities for kids and uni students to interact when their parents won't let them get outside because the media reports kid nappings like weather updates...
What a shock it was to see a North Shore Times article that had Rangitoto warning their parents about the "dangers of the internet" in regard to "Bebo, the blogging site... made headlines last month after teenagers solicited sex and drugs on it". The article goes on to say "[Rangitoto College] is concerned that students may be putting themselves at risk through inappropriate use of the net" and "A female Rangitoto student had a cartoon picture of scantily-clad woman with the words 'so scandalous' next to her profile"
Well thank goodness we aren't on Bebo...
I think there is a 'fear' that has gripped adults in relation to these new online mediums, and this article has done nothing to curb these fears other than to say Bebo will now 'screen' the users better.
Firstly: these scandals didn't even happen in
Secondly: Don't these parents have a certain amount of accountability as their 12 year old surfs the web un-supervised in their own room.
Thirdly: The use of pornographic images/lewd language can't be any more than what I see on public toilet walls and pictures kids used to bring to school when they found 'dads special magazines'.
Finally: It only takes a person to sit down and explain to these parents not "The Dangers of the Internet" (as Rangitoto called their meeting) but "Responsible Use and Supervision of the Internet", explaining that this is an exciting medium with many amazing opportunities for kids and uni students to interact when their parents won't let them get outside because the media reports kid nappings like weather updates...
posted by Ben McMahon at 5:20 pm
1 Comments:
Ben - you talk a lot of sense. In this week's lecture I had brought in and planned to show a clip from the Sunday programme from a couple of years ago which played nicely into the moral panic around kids being 'groomed' in chat rooms by paedophiles (I ran out of time to show it). Of course, the point is not that there aren't dangers (although they could only cite real cases from overseas and alleged 'near misses' here in NZ). The point is that media discourse will so willingly buy into the assumption that technology is part of the problem (as if kids hanging out in chat rooms are somehow in more danger than kids hanging out in public parks), but will hardly ever entertain the notion that the technology might also be part of the solution. It isn't so much necessary to dismiss the concerns as it is to couterbalance this by highlighting the exciting opportunities afforded by virtuality.
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