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Loading ...By now you’ve likely heard that MySpace has removed the profiles of 29,000 convicted sex offenders from the site. And while that can seem to be a frightening amount, it, in actuality, is probably represents a small fraction of those sickos who are on the mega social network.
A result of this is that legislative bodies will now look to pass legislation that would require age registration verification requirements. That’s what legislative bodies do…they seek to help solve society’s ills by passing laws.
We’ll now predictably see two vocal camps form on something like this.
On one side will be mostly childless social media advocates who see this just as a cynical political posturing by ignorant and stupid politicians who are looking for a political issue that makes them look good. They’ll think that the only problem here is bad parenting and will seek to solely blame mothers and fathers for not instructing or educating their children of the evils of online dangers. Mom and dad aren’t monitoring their kiddies every online move…their contact, their communication, their everything.
This attitude is profoundly stupid and naive because it fails on four counts. One, it doesn’t take into account the fact that parents can’t be everywhere at all times. They can’t, but again, these often childless critics don’t understand or seem to want to understand this. Second, it also assumes that teens will automatically tell mom and dad every time they’ve joined a new social network or that they’ve met a new friend on this one or that one. That this new friend that they met through another friend is totally cool and let me show you mom. Then mom or dad can email said new friend to see if the guy is cool and of course he says yes, I’m not a pedophile/rapist. All kids want a certain amount of independence. Third, it doesn’t take into the account the experience of social media. We put ourselves out there in the open, whether we’re 15 or 30 or 45 or 60. People are there to exchange info and meet one another. It becomes second hand. That’s the nature of online networks. Fourth, it doesn’t take into account how determined and clever sexual predators can be when they are on the prowl. That’s why every few months we here about a coach, a teacher, a minister, some trusted adult that gets nailed.
It often isn’t about bad parenting.
Then there will be the group, often one that has very little understanding of social media, that will be striving to pass laws that create a completely unnecessary tangled maze of obstacle courses for those who simply want to create a simple profile on a social network so they can share info with their friends or maybe meet others legitimately. Most of the proposed legistlation will have either little effect on stopping pedophiles. Or they’ll stop them dead in their tracks…as they will the rest of us from participating in these sites. It will be that much worse if regulations are passed by states, effectively forcing sites to come up with an untold amount of verification processes. And it could seriously hinder further developments in social networking.
This is profoundly naive because it doesn’t take into account how sexual predators think and behave. I once heard that there is one convicted sexual predator for every square mile in the U. S. If we stop them on MySpace they still got about 20 other alternatives to do their thing. At least online, they’re getting nailed.
It often isn’t about passing laws.
This is something that’s going to require cooler heads and cooperation from all to help reduce the threat. Blaming parents or passing ineffective laws won’t do much except delay a real set of solutions.
Filed under: Facebook, MySpace, New Media, Online Communities, Online Identity Management, Online Privacy, Social Meda, Social Networks, Virtual Communities
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