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Should MySpace Be Blamed For Sexual Assault?
from the what-did-MySpace-do? dept
There's just something about new technologies and the idea that people like to blame them, rather than the people using them, for crimes. For some reason, that seems to go double with the popular social networking site MySpace. Last year, we wrote about MySpace being blamed for some stupid kids who used it to spread rumors that there was going to be a shooting at school the next day. It was the kids' fault -- not MySpace. Now, there's a new story about a series of sexual assaults on underage girls -- where the meetings were facilitated by MySpace. However, the article seems to focus entirely on the MySpace aspect of this, which really is a minor point. The real culprits are the guys who did this -- and focusing on MySpace is going to put the blame in the wrong space. We've also noticed a trend here. On a few of our older stories about MySpace, we've had a number of angry parents show up, complaining about all the awful things they've found on the MySpace profiles of their kids or their kids' friends. It's easy to blame MySpace -- but if this is what the kids are doing, shouldn't the parents be talking to their kids about this, helping them understand why what they're doing is dangerous? Simply pinning the blame on MySpace doesn't help. If these parents succeed in stopping MySpace, the kids will simply move on to some other service. The real trick is to educate kids on appropriate behavior and the potential risks in dealing with other people online. Then, it won't matter what site they're on -- they'll have a good foundation to know how to act more appropriately.
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Re: Excesses of the
AC: "what most of you twentysomethings and singletons don't understand is that most parents need help; we no longer live in the day and age when parents are home to monitor their kids activity;"
And the point isn't to have you home to monitor your kids 24/7. The point is to instill (preferrably from a young age) a sense of right and wrong so that these kids can make informed and responsible decisions on thier own.
Will they screw up? You betcha. I did some really stupid things as a kid even though my parents were very good with the whole right/wrong thing. I slashed up a storage room door in my apartment building with a friend just to see who's knife was sharper. We tore that thing all kinds of up. Stupid thing? Yup. Did I know better? Yeah. Did I feel bad afterwards? Damn right, especially after my mom drove home the "we taught you better than that" lesson.
The important things, tho, like "don't talk to strangers who want to touch you in bad places"... yeah. That's a no-brainer. "Don't steal that box of candy from the store?" OK, sure, they may have to learn that one the hard way. But as a parent, are you going to hold the store responsible for putting th candy out there to be stolen? No. It's your responsibility to teach them, not the store's responsibility to enforce morality on your child.
And I know the argument has/is going to be made about "what if my kids to avoid strangers, but are molested because some predator found them". First and fore-most, you'd have my sympathy. Second, it's the fault of the molester. Not the fault of the owner/facilitator of the forum through which the predator found your child. The predator's parents should have done a better job raising the bastard. The bastard knows right from wrong in situations like this and chooses to do what they do.
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