Stupid Study Blasts Mobile Phones For Child Porn
What is it with bad studies and people who want to blame bad actions on neutral technologies? The latest is that suddenly everyone is afraid of how mobile phones can be used for child porn thanks to a dreadful and misleading study from a charity. The study points out that the number of people arrested for child porn in the UK has gone up a tremendous amount since 1988 and then blames the internet – and warns that things are going to get worse, because of mobile phones. There are many reasons why this is ridiculous. First, the laws for child porn were different in 1988 than they are now, so comparing that number is not at all useful. Besides, the numbers are still very small – so the “huge” increase the study uses as the basis for their info is based on such a small starting number that the percentage change is pointless. Also, suggesting that mobile phones are going to make this problem worse without giving any real explanation or proof is just outright anti-technology fear-mongering. No technology ever turned anyone into a pedophile. The focus should be on finding and helping these people – not on making useless (and, in some cases, counter-productive) changes to technology.
