Teenagers and the Internet • Hacker News Board

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#41

Post by Blahah » Thu, Sep 12, 2013, 12:40 PM UTC

nissimk wrote: post #31

3pt14159 wrote: post #11

I've had the internet for twenty years (since I was 8) and computer access since I was 3. Most of my friends had access since they were 10 or 11. We turned out fine. Some kids who have poor role models are going to ask for oral sex from boys or girls that like them. This was true 3000 years ago. It is true today. It will be true twenty years from now regardless of what silly idea the person who made the documentary h…

I'm very upset that this is the top comment on here. 14 year old teenagers are definitely children and they do need to be protected by law from predators. Just because they are old enough to have children of their own doesn't make them adults. Is not OK for sites or individuals to be collecting sexual images of children and distributing them. Also, to all you folks on here saying that this is all fear mongering to ta…

Parent isn't saying it's OK to distribute sexual images of young teenagers - he's saying it should be a different offence to child porn.

I agree with your point about a shifting culture requiring adjustment. But you should recognise that rudeness is just a cultural norm that shifts with geography and time - what you consider rude (phone at the table) is perfectly acceptable in my family. In fact we almost never ate at the table, and rarely all together, but we're a very closely bonded family. To assert your version of politeness as a requirement is arrogance.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#42

Post by Blahah » Thu, Sep 12, 2013, 12:45 PM UTC

orf wrote: post #39

3pt14159 wrote: post #11

I've had the internet for twenty years (since I was 8) and computer access since I was 3. Most of my friends had access since they were 10 or 11. We turned out fine. Some kids who have poor role models are going to ask for oral sex from boys or girls that like them. This was true 3000 years ago. It is true today. It will be true twenty years from now regardless of what silly idea the person who made the documentary h…

Free and unlimited access to hardcore pornography of any type when you are in your early teens is relatively new. No generation has been exposed to such a stream of heavily sexualized content before, both online and offline. I mean the porn of 50 years ago seems tame by todays standards. Exposing children to such adult themes before they have even fully developed can't be a good thing.

Saying it can't be a good thing without even providing a reason is not constructive. It could very easily be a good thing.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#43

Post by DanBC » Thu, Sep 12, 2013, 12:46 PM UTC

jdlegg wrote: post #40

msluyter wrote: post #27

Given the absence of real data (as in, studies that demonstrate conclusively that watching too much online porn has certain downsides), it's not surprising that a lot of comments are resorting to anecdotal reasoning of the form: "Well, I use the internet and I'm ok..." Nonetheless, I think it's worth entertaining the hypothesis that in many ways the internet is like candy for your brain, and constant exposure might h…

I think the most concrete example of what you're describing is the "pattern" we saw with tobacco. Science suggested for a long time that cigarette smoking might be bad for you. As the evidence grew stronger, tobacco companies ran ads with Joe DiMaggio about how healthy their brand was[1]. Eventually the evidence was so irrefutable, and there were enough "casualties," that most reasonable people were forced to accept…

> tobacco companies ran ads with Joe DiMaggio about how healthy their brand was[1].

Tobacco companies actively engaged in a campaign of misinformation. They deliberately spread confusion about science.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#44

Post by existencebox » Thu, Sep 12, 2013, 12:52 PM UTC

shortlived wrote: post #34

msluyter wrote: post #27

Given the absence of real data (as in, studies that demonstrate conclusively that watching too much online porn has certain downsides), it's not surprising that a lot of comments are resorting to anecdotal reasoning of the form: "Well, I use the internet and I'm ok..." Nonetheless, I think it's worth entertaining the hypothesis that in many ways the internet is like candy for your brain, and constant exposure might h…

Do we need real data to know that too much porn is a bad thing? > The problem is that these are the same sorts of arguments > that have been deployed in the face of every technological > advance I agree and at the risk of sounding like my parents, I think the internet is different. Never before has their been a technology so all encompassing and so powerful (and dangerous). If I wanted to look at pictures of girls wh…

But lets turn back the clock a few thousand years, where pre-teen boys were practically expected to engage not only in sexual acts/experiences, but often with those FAR older than themselves. At the risk of more unsubstantiated statements (qualifier, I spent 7 years studying latin+latin history), I feel like the amount of sexual content exposed to children in that era was FAR greater than now, even with the internet+porn, just in different media, and handled in very different cultural and social light, with much less stigma.

There seems to be a lot of paranoia around this issue, but observe that there have been HUGE ranges of how humanity has handled sexual content over the last few thousand years around the globe, and generally "we've turned out ok." This is a question that answering empirically will be VERY difficult, due to the sheer complexity of the human development process and the number of confounding variables, and I think a degree of faith needs to be had in the resiliency of our species and social structure to adapt.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#45

Post by mmariani » Thu, Sep 12, 2013, 12:55 PM UTC

tomstuart wrote: post #16

Ugh, “the girl who let herself be gang raped”? I expect much better than this from the Guardian.

Expect, and get disappointed. Humans simply cannot be perfect at all times. Eventually, we all fuck up. Expect that and you won't be much disappointed.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#46

Post by qb45 » Thu, Sep 12, 2013, 12:58 PM UTC

nissimk wrote: post #31

3pt14159 wrote: post #11

I've had the internet for twenty years (since I was 8) and computer access since I was 3. Most of my friends had access since they were 10 or 11. We turned out fine. Some kids who have poor role models are going to ask for oral sex from boys or girls that like them. This was true 3000 years ago. It is true today. It will be true twenty years from now regardless of what silly idea the person who made the documentary h…

I'm very upset that this is the top comment on here. 14 year old teenagers are definitely children and they do need to be protected by law from predators. Just because they are old enough to have children of their own doesn't make them adults. Is not OK for sites or individuals to be collecting sexual images of children and distributing them. Also, to all you folks on here saying that this is all fear mongering to ta…

I'm very upset that this is the top comment on here. 14 year old teenagers are definitely children and they do need to be protected by law from predators.

Everybody should be protected by law from predators. Including you. The claim was that what isn't needed is "protection" by law from recording activities that people willfully perform anyway.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#47

Post by DanBC » Thu, Sep 12, 2013, 1:00 PM UTC

3pt14159 wrote: post #11

I've had the internet for twenty years (since I was 8) and computer access since I was 3. Most of my friends had access since they were 10 or 11. We turned out fine. Some kids who have poor role models are going to ask for oral sex from boys or girls that like them. This was true 3000 years ago. It is true today. It will be true twenty years from now regardless of what silly idea the person who made the documentary h…

> They arn't children. They are teenagers.

Have you ever met a teenager? They're fucking idiotic. That's why we don't let them drink alcohol or vote or get married or have sex or join the army or a bunch of other stuff.

> You know those dirty letters you got from your sweetheart when you were 17? Sexting is the same damn thing.

No it isn't. A dirty letter is a dirty letter. A photo sent via sms has lasting consequences. Youth don't understand consequences, that's why we need to keep reminding them that anything they put on the Internet will stay there forever.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#48

Post by isolated » Thu, Sep 12, 2013, 1:06 PM UTC

Those men who retain their privacy by abdicating social media pay an impossible price. The gradual fade of their relationships and social livelihood. Only one who has spent so long starved by it's lack that their ache has forgotten to bother them can hope to pay it. Thankfully current business is email. But our peers are eager to change that.

Tales of young women giving themselves to multiple men is a common trope in hysterical portrayals of social ills. If one would like an example of what these tropes look like, 'Reefer Madness' is on netflix. This article almost reads like a paid endorsement of david camerons internet filter. It is a outrageous story about internet porn, men who dare anonymity, and youth corrupting youth designed to generate panic in the minds of ordinary men.

I have no idea what the situation is in the UK, but I know I've never been invited to any sex parties. Nor have I ever heard of such a thing happening in my area. This might be because such sex parties don't exist, or because men who obviously wouldn't participate aren't invited.

But then, who can argue with such wonderful anecdotes?

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#49

Post by gersonaya » Thu, Sep 12, 2013, 1:06 PM UTC

3pt14159 wrote: post #11

I've had the internet for twenty years (since I was 8) and computer access since I was 3. Most of my friends had access since they were 10 or 11. We turned out fine. Some kids who have poor role models are going to ask for oral sex from boys or girls that like them. This was true 3000 years ago. It is true today. It will be true twenty years from now regardless of what silly idea the person who made the documentary h…

You made a good point stating that 14-18 years old are not children. They are teenagers. When you're at this age, your hormones and sexual desire are at a huge level. So, with or without porn, boys (and girls) tend to think about (and talk about) sex all day. Many young boys and girls masturbate, too. We have a hard time accepting that because teenage sexuality is still a great taboo in our society. Why? Because we like to think that sexual maturity goes along with intellectual maturity, however, that's just false. Learning to deal with the fact that teenagers want and have the right to have sex despite their childish behavior is way more wiser than just proibition. What they need is better education on how to deal with their own sexual life.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#50

Post by barry-cotter » Thu, Sep 12, 2013, 1:08 PM UTC

nissimk wrote: post #31

3pt14159 wrote: post #11

I've had the internet for twenty years (since I was 8) and computer access since I was 3. Most of my friends had access since they were 10 or 11. We turned out fine. Some kids who have poor role models are going to ask for oral sex from boys or girls that like them. This was true 3000 years ago. It is true today. It will be true twenty years from now regardless of what silly idea the person who made the documentary h…

I'm very upset that this is the top comment on here. 14 year old teenagers are definitely children and they do need to be protected by law from predators. Just because they are old enough to have children of their own doesn't make them adults. Is not OK for sites or individuals to be collecting sexual images of children and distributing them. Also, to all you folks on here saying that this is all fear mongering to ta…

Teenagers are not children, they are idiots. Puberty makes idiots of those going through it and it doesn't really stop until one is about 25. The average ten year old has a better appreciation of risk than their 14 year old self but one is a child and the other is not. Infantilisation does not help anyone grow up.

I appreciate your point about the social effects of ubiquitous handheld computing but frankly I grew up constantly being told to go outside or talk to people when I preferred to read. Being present in body only is not a new thing.

Your children will be different, your grandchildren moreso, their children will be as different from you as you are from the median Saudi. We're living in the future and assuming trends continue our descendants will be libertine aliens.