AW: [LINK] more shonky stats

[Jan Whitaker]

At 04:01 PM 12/02/04 +1100, Craig Sanders wrote:
> > and doesn't fall back on only leaving up to the parents,
>
>like it or not, controlling online child abuse inherently falls back to the
>parents.  they are the ones who have a responsibility to monitor and control
>their child's internet access, they are the ones who have a responsibility to
>educate their child about privacy and internet safety issues.  parents do not
>have any right at all to pass the buck on this issue (IMO, a desire to 
>pass the
>buck on this is indicative of at least neglect in itself).

Craig, this is similar to a response I was trying to write a day or so ago. 
Seems like the interpretation of 'the problem' is part of 'the 
problem'.  My response was going to ask something about how a physical 
person can be abused by another physical person who is not in the same room 
with them.

Then I thought, well, maybe they are talking about the children [when they 
are real children rather than 'fake' children] who appear in the 
images.  And would the availability of a fast and somewhat anonymous and 
pervasive delivery system, ie the Internet, provide for any greater 
exploitation of the children who are in those existing images?  That 
wouldn't stop the capture of the images in the physical world which I would 
assume has been going on for a long time without the existence of the net.

So what the net has done is what many new technologies do:  amplify the 
awareness of something that is real and provide the beginnings of an 
awareness in the public to do something about those who are exploiting 
physical children.  'On Line' is the straw man, not the problem.  In fact, 
those who have this agenda of child protection would be better off spending 
their energy on the physical child abusers that in some cases would perhaps 
be traceable through the sting operations as is done when physical children 
are targeted, online OR OTHERWISE.

Back to the parental control bit.  It is the responsibility of parents to 
know where their kids are.  Full stop. So if children leave the home to do 
anything, the parents have the responsibility to 1) make sure their kids 
are advised of not trusting strangers encountered on the Internet or 
ANYWHERE, 2) not to believe everything you read/hear, 3) protect kids from 
the main perpetrators of child abuse which are people often known to 
parents [BAD sorts in clergy, schools, mom's boyfriends, strange uncles, 
etc.].  Governments and social service agencies can only intervene when 
those things are addressed and should stop blaming technologies and focus 
on the perpetrators.

I'm done now and won't say any more on this one except to say I delete the 
'announcements' when I see them, as I would assume many Linkers do, which 
is sad because there may one day be some important work done in this area.

Jan


JLWhitaker Associates
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at melbpc.org.au  --  http://member.melbpc.org.au/~jwhit/whitentr.htm
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