Aids, laws that oppress social interaction, stalkers, hepatitis, nosey neighbors, you name it; it keeps us isolated in modern times. We live in a world where it’s possible to go to work, shop, and otherwise live without any serious interaction with anyone. This leads to depression, social anxiety disorder, higher suicide rates, and large numbers of the populace turning to pharmacology for answers to their basic problem – loneliness. The bright spot in these technology laden and litigious times is the Internet and its social interaction software. The elderly, when given access to e-mail are less likely to become depressed because they can stay in touch with their family and friends more efficiently. The dark side of social networking software is its use by child predators and stalkers. Will banning the use of social networking sites in public libraries alleviate this problem? Furthermore, are we or our children at any more risk on the Internet than in our local neighborhoods or, with the recent wave of teachers seducing 11 year olds, in our local schools?
In April of this year, Justin Berry testified before Congress revealing his child porn webcam business he started at age 13. America reacted with understandable outrage that such horrific things could happen to such an All-American looking young man. I watched the testimony. While watching I wondered how his family could not know this was happening to him. Then he told Congress that after he moved to Mexico to live with his father that his father began to collaborate with his business. Can we expect the federal government to protect children from being exploited by their parents? This troubled young man then revealed that he was a cocaine addict. Where is the outrage over the cocaine industry in this country? Back when the Internet was only available through Universities and the back doors of a few bulletin boards there were people prostituting their children for cocaine. No one seemed to worry about it in Chickasha, Oklahoma back in the 1980’s that I recall.
The solution proposed to stop all of this was a ban on the use of social networking sites. "When children leave the home and go to school or the public library and have access to social-networking sites, we have reason to be concerned," Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, told CNET News.com in an interview. Social networking sites include all websites that are interactive. This would affect Yahoo! Chat, X-Box 360, My Space, and a whole host of other places online. Congress proposes to filter out these sites in schools and libraries. This seems like a good thing on the surface. For one, young children have no more business in a chat room with adults than they do in a bar room. I just spent my vacation in my favorite Yahoo! Chat room and although I enjoy chatting, I wouldn’t want my 11 year old daughter in one of those rooms. One guy from Iran asked me for ‘SXS.’ I felt he had made progress when he actually learned how to spell ‘SEX.’ However, he was no threat to me, as I was easily able to hit the ignore button to thwart his unwanted sexual advances. Had I just quit using Yahoo! Chat as a result of this strange encounter I would have missed out on meeting some interesting chat buddies.
I have a profile on MySpace and I have never tested it, but the terms and conditions say that if I post pornography my profile will be deleted. I have also gotten back in contact with some old friends as a result of MySpace. As with chat, I can pick and choose who I interact with. Before the Internet, there were sexual predators that would lure children into cars with the promise of candy or baseball cards. My generation was educated to not talk to strangers. There was no outcry to ban cars from libraries. Banning access to these sites is just as absurd. We would do this new generation a service by educating them to the danger of interacting with any strangers and reporting possible solicitation to a trusted adult. I feel like this would go much farther in cutting down and capturing child predators.
I was killing some time on the computers in my local library that has filtering software installed, supposedly to filter out pornography as defined by the community standards of the State of Oklahoma. This filtering software blocked access to the site mastermason.com which is a message board and website with information about Freemasonry. I could argue that we would have no country without the hard work of the Masons in crafting our Constitution. There was a form to report why I felt this was an obviously unjustly filtered site. Other such political sites have been blocked since then and there is no longer a feedback form for complaints. The abuse of filtering software and the damage it imposes on our personal liberty negates any good it affords us. When we take the element of social responsibility out of the equation, our freedom is multiplied by zero.
that was today!
