Despite much-publicized fears, the explosion in the use of web hangouts like MySpace does not seem to have brought any increase in sexual predation online. In fact, the percentage of kids who report being solicited by perverts on the Internet has actually gone down over the past five years, from 19% to 13%, according to a major study released today by the University of New Hampshire (and covered by USA Today). Exposure to porn has gone up sharply, however, despite the spread of filtering technologies.
To have 13% of kids having to handle unwanted sexual advances online is nothing to celebrate, but at least the number’s going in the right direction. And MySpace, whatever its faults, appears to be something less than a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah.
I think there are plenty of other criticisms to lodge against MySpace so, please, don’t take me as suggesting one should spare the whip, but….
On the specific issue of sexual predation, whether by design or luck, MySpace has done a fairly good job. Beyond the basics of what they can do they pretty much threw up their arms, loudly, about what they can not do. They sparked a national dialog — no really — about parental responsibility in monitoring the online behavior of kids and about kids awareness in protecting themselves. The net effect was, I think, to make not just MySpace but the web in general a far more dangerous environment for would be predators.
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Watching MySpace for quite awhile, I noticed how so much of it reflects the world of online dating sites. Had someone bothered to ask those of us who spent time in the hurly-burly of online dating in the early days of the ‘net, we could have given them a number of pointers on how to avoid “predators” and saved a bit of the wailing and gnashing of teeth that’s gone on over this thing…
Since the early days of the ‘net, women online have had to learn ways of protecting themselves from the unwanted attention of individuals who have been freed of the constraints of civilized, face-to-face society and the super-ego.
But no-one wants our input. We know the dangers, and many of us know how to handle them rather well, but the boy-men and rapacious capitalists just don’t want to hear from us. We might dampen the growth of their business if we throw up caution flags.
Still, the predator problem is far more complex than simply blocking sites and catching the predators. Young teens are prey for very complicated reasons–including abuse and neglect already going on in their homes. We can’t pass any legislation on that, nor can we creep into every home and fix every dysfunction. The focus on Internet predators merely highlights what’s been going on in the real world for generations. Sticking behavior in a box makes it easier to measure…it’s good to see that it’s going down, but it will never truly go away.
And it’s not surprisng to hear the porn stats. Pornogrpahers are great networkers and innovators and are fabulous on getting people to hack through anything that might deter them.
My 19 year old daughter seems to take MySpace and all the street theater news about its dangers in stride, and regularly laughs at the MySpace alarmists.
I personally have avoided creating a MySpace site out of fear that some hot younger (I’m being PC here) woman will attempt to lure my 57 year old body out into some sexual rendezvous and have her way with me.
Um, on second thought, tell me again where I can sign up for MySpace…