On reading Ruth Hart's (see link below) comment on The social world of the "computer", I became very interested in this topic. She presents what is probably the sentiment of many parents here in Australia and around the world, on child use of the internet. Not long ago, perhaps a few weeks there was a story on Oprah about a teanage boy who innocently bought himself a video camera so that he could chat to friends via the internet. It seemed innocent enough until a "friend" made a a suggestion that he remove his t-shirt. From this his life spiralled out of control, unbeknown to his mother and step father. He went from being an innocent teenage boy, who was smart enough to run his own legitamate business, to a porn star. In attempt to reclaim his childhood, he moved to his father's home in Mexico, thinking he would help him out of this mess, however his father saw this a chance to make money and fully exploited the situation and his son. Needlees to say, the authorities wanting to end this big business of child pornography found Justin and helped him out of this situation and he is now risking his life in trying to identify Justin's "clients".
As you can probably tell this episode had me glued and crying that such a beutiful young person had his innocence stolen from him in the most horrifying way. His ulter ego was found out by other students at his school and he was ruined. But he was brave enough to go on national television to "out" his experiences and to let society know that this is a very serious problem.
Until I watched this episode I thought the internet was such a great tool for communication of ideas, for a chat and to keep in contact with friends from around the world, and I still do but this issue has really made me think about how as adults, be us parents, teachers or any other adult working with children and teenagers, make this tool of communication safe that they can benefit from its many advantages and keep them from the predatory "evil" of some other users.
Below is a link to Ruth Hart's blog that started me on this issue and the likn below that is a link to Oprah.com where there is video footage and written information on this story. Have a look it is very interesting for people who are interested in working with adolescents or children in the future, or even if you aren't, and then let me know what you think.
http://sopsych.blogspot.com/2007/08/social-world-of-computer.html
http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200602/tows_past_20060215.jhtml
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2 comments:
Wow, this is quite a story. I was particularly struck by the gradualness of what happened. It provides a clear warning. Nevertheless I do feel like sometimes there is a tendency to 'blame' these things on technology rather than people.
Definetly, it comes down to people misusing what was meant to be a wonderful tool for interaction and maintaining connections between people. However, some people see it as a away to maintain their (I believe) sickness, to feed it, and the innocent are their victims.
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