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From what I can gather from Daytime TV, the soaps and papers, the current middle class scare is that of the chat room paedophile.
This being, (although I’m sure everyone already knows), the activity of paedophiles to use chat rooms to manipulate children, supposedly talking them into a meeting at some point.
Now, if this is happening, it is a terrible thing, and it does need to be stopped.
But I cant help feeling that the scare tactics used by the popular media are only causing unnecessary problems, making the situation worse, and helping no-one but the Newspapers bank balance.
I understand that there are about two soaps currently running a story about teenage girls being talked into a meeting with a paedophile. Wherein the offender pretends to be a teenage boy, arranges for a meeting at his house wherein the girl is trapped.
Equally, there’s Carol Vordeman, currently doing the rounds of Daytime TV, with a young girl who was ‘nearly’ duped into meeting an adult, talking about the dangers of chat room. Apparently she has petitioned Yahoo.co.uk and several others of the larger Internet businesses, who offer chat room services to, amongst other demands, stop children’s chat rooms being run. And is currently attempting to use media based bullying tactics to see that these demands are implemented.
This strikes me as being largely pointless since, if the chat rooms remove the Teen-Chat, then children and teenagers will just use the other chat rooms. And even if the group succeed in removing chat rooms from the British internet businesses, they still have to deal with the problem that it is not only a simple matter for anyone to set-up their own chat room. But also that American (and other countries) who have not interest in a minor British celebs opinion will continue with their chat rooms, unabated. Thereby globaliseing the problem making it much harder to handle.
Why no one has yet put forward the idea of education to solve such problems confuses me…
I haven’t used a chat room since about 1995/96, (Which is about the time it stopped being about pointless chatter and more about c-sex), and even then I wasn’t all that fussed about them. However, I understand (cos I went to a few as I was typing this J) that most chat rooms, before you enter, show you certain rules and guidelines for use (usually in quite big capital letters too)… Not giving out personal details, never assume the person is who they say they are, never arrange to meet, etc… If these rules were followed then chatting would be a perfectly harmless activity…
It strikes me that if people were taught to consider other people in chat rooms as if they were strangers (strangely enough) then there would be no problems… I real life, you may chat to someone on the tube, but you would never give them your phone number, or arrange to meet them later for drinks…
Also, the large amounts of money currently being spent on advertising the chat room paedophiles could be used to better effect on stopping a large number of standard paedophile cases from continuing.
Is it right that someone should use child abuse as a means to boost his or her flagging career?
Shouldn’t the cause of the problem be tackled directly rather than the resulting symptoms?
This being, (although I’m sure everyone already knows), the activity of paedophiles to use chat rooms to manipulate children, supposedly talking them into a meeting at some point.
Now, if this is happening, it is a terrible thing, and it does need to be stopped.
But I cant help feeling that the scare tactics used by the popular media are only causing unnecessary problems, making the situation worse, and helping no-one but the Newspapers bank balance.
I understand that there are about two soaps currently running a story about teenage girls being talked into a meeting with a paedophile. Wherein the offender pretends to be a teenage boy, arranges for a meeting at his house wherein the girl is trapped.
Equally, there’s Carol Vordeman, currently doing the rounds of Daytime TV, with a young girl who was ‘nearly’ duped into meeting an adult, talking about the dangers of chat room. Apparently she has petitioned Yahoo.co.uk and several others of the larger Internet businesses, who offer chat room services to, amongst other demands, stop children’s chat rooms being run. And is currently attempting to use media based bullying tactics to see that these demands are implemented.
This strikes me as being largely pointless since, if the chat rooms remove the Teen-Chat, then children and teenagers will just use the other chat rooms. And even if the group succeed in removing chat rooms from the British internet businesses, they still have to deal with the problem that it is not only a simple matter for anyone to set-up their own chat room. But also that American (and other countries) who have not interest in a minor British celebs opinion will continue with their chat rooms, unabated. Thereby globaliseing the problem making it much harder to handle.
Why no one has yet put forward the idea of education to solve such problems confuses me…
I haven’t used a chat room since about 1995/96, (Which is about the time it stopped being about pointless chatter and more about c-sex), and even then I wasn’t all that fussed about them. However, I understand (cos I went to a few as I was typing this J) that most chat rooms, before you enter, show you certain rules and guidelines for use (usually in quite big capital letters too)… Not giving out personal details, never assume the person is who they say they are, never arrange to meet, etc… If these rules were followed then chatting would be a perfectly harmless activity…
It strikes me that if people were taught to consider other people in chat rooms as if they were strangers (strangely enough) then there would be no problems… I real life, you may chat to someone on the tube, but you would never give them your phone number, or arrange to meet them later for drinks…
Also, the large amounts of money currently being spent on advertising the chat room paedophiles could be used to better effect on stopping a large number of standard paedophile cases from continuing.
Is it right that someone should use child abuse as a means to boost his or her flagging career?
Shouldn’t the cause of the problem be tackled directly rather than the resulting symptoms?
Page:
I totally agree. I have a 10 year old son who accesses the net from school with strict guidelines and is supervised at all times. He can access "fun" sites like the Beano etc. and can also log on to certain sites giving cheats for his Playstation (UKcheats has been bookmarked on all school PC`s!). The point being he is SUPERVISED at all times. Does this not strike a chord? Should some parent somewhere take responsibilty for these kids who say they are just going out to meet someone? Is this not how rape, kidnap and murder get committed in the first place? Opportunity has to find a place, this place should not be unsupervised for minors. Call me paranoid but I like to think I`m protecting the youth of today for the better of tomorrow.
Stranger In Paradise wrote:
> the overall problem is that the Internet is becoming ( or already is
> ) a lawless zone.
I dont think this is a bad thing... I personally like that it is pretty much impossible to police the net. And that people should be allowed to police themselves, or their children, choosing to go and see what they want, and leaving that which they dont.
Too many people think that internet crime is
> committed by bored 13 year old kids ( okay so some is lol ) and
> harms no one apart from a few web sites get a temporary redesign.
>
Last week a British court let Raphael Gray go after The FBI
> tracked him down to a house in Wales following millions of $ worth
> of investigation. The judges reason....one of them that Gray
> suffered from low self esteem at the time ! I mean if everyone who
> feels a bit down tries to hack credt card info it's going to get
> interesting very fast....... Now if someone working in a shop steals
> credit card info or takes it by some conventional means would they
> be freed ? Unlikely.
Doesnt this again come down to education ... Arnt the worst crimes being passed by with the incidents that arnt important being scadalised to the age group most likely to be technophic?
Well, I'll finish up because I
> don't want to go too much off topic but this final thought; The
> internet is embedded in many peoples lives, it cannot be destroyed,
> anything can be found on it and it will become more a part of all
> our lives in the future.
> I personally think this is a bad thing.
My personal impression of the net, is that it is still a far too new a medium to be completly understood... In fact, I wouldnt really like to refer to it as a medium in itself, its a means to create mediums... within it currently is the WWW, Radio, TV broadcasts, and the like...
I dont think the Internet can ever be a bad thing, but I think it can be used for less than moral ends.
I'm not asking in an attempt to flame, because I am genuinly curious, but, why do you think this is a bad thing?
> the overall problem is that the Internet is becoming ( or already is
> ) a lawless zone.
I dont think this is a bad thing... I personally like that it is pretty much impossible to police the net. And that people should be allowed to police themselves, or their children, choosing to go and see what they want, and leaving that which they dont.
Too many people think that internet crime is
> committed by bored 13 year old kids ( okay so some is lol ) and
> harms no one apart from a few web sites get a temporary redesign.
>
Last week a British court let Raphael Gray go after The FBI
> tracked him down to a house in Wales following millions of $ worth
> of investigation. The judges reason....one of them that Gray
> suffered from low self esteem at the time ! I mean if everyone who
> feels a bit down tries to hack credt card info it's going to get
> interesting very fast....... Now if someone working in a shop steals
> credit card info or takes it by some conventional means would they
> be freed ? Unlikely.
Doesnt this again come down to education ... Arnt the worst crimes being passed by with the incidents that arnt important being scadalised to the age group most likely to be technophic?
Well, I'll finish up because I
> don't want to go too much off topic but this final thought; The
> internet is embedded in many peoples lives, it cannot be destroyed,
> anything can be found on it and it will become more a part of all
> our lives in the future.
> I personally think this is a bad thing.
My personal impression of the net, is that it is still a far too new a medium to be completly understood... In fact, I wouldnt really like to refer to it as a medium in itself, its a means to create mediums... within it currently is the WWW, Radio, TV broadcasts, and the like...
I dont think the Internet can ever be a bad thing, but I think it can be used for less than moral ends.
I'm not asking in an attempt to flame, because I am genuinly curious, but, why do you think this is a bad thing?
Yes the cause should be tackled rather than the symptoms but I think the overall problem is that the Internet is becoming ( or already is ) a lawless zone. Too many people think that internet crime is committed by bored 13 year old kids ( okay so some is lol ) and harms no one apart from a few web sites get a temporary redesign.
Last week a British court let Raphael Gray go after The FBI tracked him down to a house in Wales following millions of $ worth of investigation. The judges reason....one of them that Gray suffered from low self esteem at the time ! I mean if everyone who feels a bit down tries to hack credt card info it's going to get interesting very fast....... Now if someone working in a shop steals credit card info or takes it by some conventional means would they be freed ? Unlikely.
I looked at chat rooms briefly when I first came on the net in 97 but soon abandoned them when it became clear to me how pointless they were, in fact SR's forum here is the first I've ever seen thats worth using because it's clean, not full of adverts and policed. Parents who quickly heap blame on the makers of chat rooms should just take a step back and think one second....would they let their children out alone in a city full of strangers ? No...so why do they let their children surf the net unsupervised ? The sooner people realise that the net is just as dangerous as real life the better.
Well, I'll finish up because I don't want to go too much off topic but this final thought; The internet is embedded in many peoples lives, it cannot be destroyed, anything can be found on it and it will become more a part of all our lives in the future.
I personally think this is a bad thing.
Last week a British court let Raphael Gray go after The FBI tracked him down to a house in Wales following millions of $ worth of investigation. The judges reason....one of them that Gray suffered from low self esteem at the time ! I mean if everyone who feels a bit down tries to hack credt card info it's going to get interesting very fast....... Now if someone working in a shop steals credit card info or takes it by some conventional means would they be freed ? Unlikely.
I looked at chat rooms briefly when I first came on the net in 97 but soon abandoned them when it became clear to me how pointless they were, in fact SR's forum here is the first I've ever seen thats worth using because it's clean, not full of adverts and policed. Parents who quickly heap blame on the makers of chat rooms should just take a step back and think one second....would they let their children out alone in a city full of strangers ? No...so why do they let their children surf the net unsupervised ? The sooner people realise that the net is just as dangerous as real life the better.
Well, I'll finish up because I don't want to go too much off topic but this final thought; The internet is embedded in many peoples lives, it cannot be destroyed, anything can be found on it and it will become more a part of all our lives in the future.
I personally think this is a bad thing.
From what I can gather from Daytime TV, the soaps and papers, the current middle class scare is that of the chat room paedophile.
This being, (although I’m sure everyone already knows), the activity of paedophiles to use chat rooms to manipulate children, supposedly talking them into a meeting at some point.
Now, if this is happening, it is a terrible thing, and it does need to be stopped.
But I cant help feeling that the scare tactics used by the popular media are only causing unnecessary problems, making the situation worse, and helping no-one but the Newspapers bank balance.
I understand that there are about two soaps currently running a story about teenage girls being talked into a meeting with a paedophile. Wherein the offender pretends to be a teenage boy, arranges for a meeting at his house wherein the girl is trapped.
Equally, there’s Carol Vordeman, currently doing the rounds of Daytime TV, with a young girl who was ‘nearly’ duped into meeting an adult, talking about the dangers of chat room. Apparently she has petitioned Yahoo.co.uk and several others of the larger Internet businesses, who offer chat room services to, amongst other demands, stop children’s chat rooms being run. And is currently attempting to use media based bullying tactics to see that these demands are implemented.
This strikes me as being largely pointless since, if the chat rooms remove the Teen-Chat, then children and teenagers will just use the other chat rooms. And even if the group succeed in removing chat rooms from the British internet businesses, they still have to deal with the problem that it is not only a simple matter for anyone to set-up their own chat room. But also that American (and other countries) who have not interest in a minor British celebs opinion will continue with their chat rooms, unabated. Thereby globaliseing the problem making it much harder to handle.
Why no one has yet put forward the idea of education to solve such problems confuses me…
I haven’t used a chat room since about 1995/96, (Which is about the time it stopped being about pointless chatter and more about c-sex), and even then I wasn’t all that fussed about them. However, I understand (cos I went to a few as I was typing this J) that most chat rooms, before you enter, show you certain rules and guidelines for use (usually in quite big capital letters too)… Not giving out personal details, never assume the person is who they say they are, never arrange to meet, etc… If these rules were followed then chatting would be a perfectly harmless activity…
It strikes me that if people were taught to consider other people in chat rooms as if they were strangers (strangely enough) then there would be no problems… I real life, you may chat to someone on the tube, but you would never give them your phone number, or arrange to meet them later for drinks…
Also, the large amounts of money currently being spent on advertising the chat room paedophiles could be used to better effect on stopping a large number of standard paedophile cases from continuing.
Is it right that someone should use child abuse as a means to boost his or her flagging career?
Shouldn’t the cause of the problem be tackled directly rather than the resulting symptoms?
This being, (although I’m sure everyone already knows), the activity of paedophiles to use chat rooms to manipulate children, supposedly talking them into a meeting at some point.
Now, if this is happening, it is a terrible thing, and it does need to be stopped.
But I cant help feeling that the scare tactics used by the popular media are only causing unnecessary problems, making the situation worse, and helping no-one but the Newspapers bank balance.
I understand that there are about two soaps currently running a story about teenage girls being talked into a meeting with a paedophile. Wherein the offender pretends to be a teenage boy, arranges for a meeting at his house wherein the girl is trapped.
Equally, there’s Carol Vordeman, currently doing the rounds of Daytime TV, with a young girl who was ‘nearly’ duped into meeting an adult, talking about the dangers of chat room. Apparently she has petitioned Yahoo.co.uk and several others of the larger Internet businesses, who offer chat room services to, amongst other demands, stop children’s chat rooms being run. And is currently attempting to use media based bullying tactics to see that these demands are implemented.
This strikes me as being largely pointless since, if the chat rooms remove the Teen-Chat, then children and teenagers will just use the other chat rooms. And even if the group succeed in removing chat rooms from the British internet businesses, they still have to deal with the problem that it is not only a simple matter for anyone to set-up their own chat room. But also that American (and other countries) who have not interest in a minor British celebs opinion will continue with their chat rooms, unabated. Thereby globaliseing the problem making it much harder to handle.
Why no one has yet put forward the idea of education to solve such problems confuses me…
I haven’t used a chat room since about 1995/96, (Which is about the time it stopped being about pointless chatter and more about c-sex), and even then I wasn’t all that fussed about them. However, I understand (cos I went to a few as I was typing this J) that most chat rooms, before you enter, show you certain rules and guidelines for use (usually in quite big capital letters too)… Not giving out personal details, never assume the person is who they say they are, never arrange to meet, etc… If these rules were followed then chatting would be a perfectly harmless activity…
It strikes me that if people were taught to consider other people in chat rooms as if they were strangers (strangely enough) then there would be no problems… I real life, you may chat to someone on the tube, but you would never give them your phone number, or arrange to meet them later for drinks…
Also, the large amounts of money currently being spent on advertising the chat room paedophiles could be used to better effect on stopping a large number of standard paedophile cases from continuing.
Is it right that someone should use child abuse as a means to boost his or her flagging career?
Shouldn’t the cause of the problem be tackled directly rather than the resulting symptoms?
Page: