Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Response to 10/8 Class
I didn't think that the frontline video was representative of the majority of young people who use the internet. While it was interesting to watch, and I do know people that are very similar to those on the video, most of the people do not use the internet in the same extreme way. For example the girl who created a new identity on myspace...while there are many people like her who use the internet as a personal escape from reality, they are such a small percentage of the whole population on the internet. Also, I couldn't believe the actions of the PTA mom. She tried to hard to shelter her children-I can understand monitoring their behavior online if they had been significantly younger but one of her kids was about to be in college, and the other two were high school age. The mom was worried about internet predators, but her kids were old enough so that they should be able to be experienced enough on the internet to avoid any possible bad situations...I feel like that is only a problem for younger kids or people who actively go looking to meet people online, not so much a problem for the average internet user.
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I completely agree. I think the mother in the Frontline video became too caught up in the media hype about online predators and other dangers, while forgetting her children were individuals who possessed at least some modicum of common sense to avoid obvious and subtle online threats. Frankly, I believe this situation is too indicative of our society's emphasis on victims and the absolution of any guilt on behalf of victims. In my opinion, the supposed classic 14 year old victim almost always willingly participates in the exchange with a predator that eventually leads to a harm committed by the predator against the "victim." For the most part, teenagers have common sense enough to avoid these situations and I think the mother needs to realize this.
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