Teen Attacked Over Text Message

[Bruno@MT]

Bob, isn't that what this story does? Gives us the lesson in reality?

It also gave Josie a lesson in reality: don't get nasty and personal, because you migh bite off more than you can chew.
It also gave Wayne a lesson in reality: don't overreact, because you will face legal trouble.

Both were in the wrong here.

 

[theletch1]

Bob, isn't that what this story does? Gives us the lesson in reality?

Us? If you mean those of us discussing it here, well, maybe a little, but most of this particular "us" are already taking a pro-active approach to safety. If you mean "us" as in the general public then no. There will be knee jerk reactions on both sides of the fence for this one and folks will ***** and moan for a week or two and then the story will be forgotten. I don't see this as a technology problem at all. Technology just happens to be what goes into a head line to grab the eye of the average reader now a days. It's the latest avenue of delivery for bullying. Personally, I think that the comments of "We need to teach our kids how to handle technology" or "We need to teach our kids about safety on the net" are missing the point entirely. The phrase needs to be "We need to be parents and step up and teach our children how to be quality citizens of our society." It wouldn't have mattered if they were scratching messages on a frickin' rock and tossing it back and forth. The problem here is that we have two children who thought that it was ok to use violence of an extreme nature to settle a problem. One used psychological violence, the other used physical violence. Technology? Not a problem as it allows me to sit here with my cat in my lap and dog at my feet and discuss things I find interesting with all of you (whom I also find interesting) without any problems. People who refuse to be parents and a society in general who has decided that this kind of behavior is acceptable... that's the damn problem.

 

[Bruno@MT]

A good approach to communication is to always think: 'Is this something I would say face to face'. I avoid conflict online as much as in real life. As in real life, yelling is virtually never a constructive way to go about arguing.

 

[MJS]

Some of these parents don't even know the software, let alone have the capabilities of going through it line by line with their kids as Gordon suggested. GenX isn't as universally techno-savvy as some folks think they are.

I did some pickup work for Geek Squad during layoffs past, and met one family a couple of towns up from me. Parents were my age, very bright and successful. The complaint was the computer used by the 12 and 13 year old was not working properly. After I de-gunked the system of spyware and the like, I found some stuff on the computer that disturbed me...revealing Xanga pages (in more ways than one), bookmarks for alternative dating communities

How the hell do you tell your client that their 12 or 13 year old daughter posted pictures of herself online wearing little more than a bra and a skirt? I told Mom bluntly what I found on the machine, she didn't even know what Xanga was....let alone how her daughter was putting out on the internet.

Thus, the reason why when something does happen, the majority of the parents have the "Oh no, not my Johnny." attitude. Considering the state of things today, parents should try to stay with the times.