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Teenagers and the Internet

theguardian.com

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81–90 of 125 posts

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#81

Post by broken_symlink »

vixus wrote: post #64
nissimk wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> It is very rude to sit at the dinner table with people and be interacting with your mobile device rather than your real life companions. Right, and whose responsibility is it to make sure that children grow up knowing using their mobile phone at the dining table is wrong?

The mobile carriers and cell phone manufacturers.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#82

Post by teeja »

It's great that someone so attentive to teens is candidly exploring this subject on film. Unfortunate that it seems to be focussed primarily on negatives.

Yes I spend a lot of time on the net: unlike the TV which consumed thousands of passive, scripted hours in my youth, the net is interactive, the outcome within my control. For most of my life, the many things I couldn't learn more about for lack of time or helpful resources were out of reach; the amplification is awesome. For most of my life, I had to imagine being connected with communities of shared interests, never imagining having the focussing luxury of needing to choose from among them.

Those changes in my life are all positives. So while teens are doing teenish things with this tech, they are learning - just as we adults are. And when they become parents, they'll know from experience (just as in the middle ages and in the 1800s and 1950s) the impact of these new things.

The social impact of emergent technologies has always been unpredictable. Luckily humans adapt. And so far, ever since the first piece of flint changed lives, we've muddled on somehow. Not that worry-warting is worthless; reflection is in fact the mother of adaptation.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#83

Post by superuser2 »

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…

>It is very rude to sit at the dinner table with people and be interacting with your mobile device rather than your real life companions.

1) Not a teenager-specific problem. I'll quickly and unobtrusively answer texts only if they're related to plans for later in the evening. If my mom gets a call from her mother or sister, she'll take it at the dinner table and talk for over an hour while expecting the rest of the family to immediately cease our conversations so she can hear clearly. But it's me who shouldn't be allowed to have a phone?

2) That's pretty easily addressed by parents setting expectations for dinner as a sacred time. Don't want to put your phone down, don't eat. This is not a reason for regulation, changes on the part of manufacturers, or for teenagers not to have phones at all.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#84

Post by nissimk »

Blahah wrote: post #41
nissimk wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

You are right about the arrogance and I apologize.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#85

Post by IsThisObvious »

dictum wrote: post #56
nissimk wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> the recent cultural shift with the prevalence of handheld computing has a lot of negative side effects and we need to rethink the norms One possible rethinking of the norms would be to worry less about teenagers, letting them sext if that's their thing, and advising them to not let societal abuse (e.g. bullying) get to them. Scenario: a teenager sends a nude picture to a friend and the picture becomes public. Possi…

> I doubt having a line drawn that says you're not an adult until you're 18 years old, and until then you're still a child will keep working in this century. It worked when social dynamics between teenagers and adults were different.

I'm not sure it ever really "worked", and seems to be an idea that is less than 100 years old. If it's failing already, I'm not sure we can count the couple generations it happened to it "working".

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#86

Post by superuser2 »

simias wrote: post #69

I've always thought the problem was letting kids alone on the net. You wouldn't let you kid alone in a shaddy neighborhood for hours without checking up on them, would you? So why do exactly that with the internet? I think the main problem with the web is that it makes you lose your right to be forgotten. Think of those kids who post stupid videos of themselves on youtube that go viral. It won't go away, people will…

Would it have been okay for your parents to wiretap your phone? No? Then why is it okay to demand to read your children's private conversations?

I am terrified we're going to have a generation of kids who have no concept of private. Who've never been allowed to speak or be curious about anything their parents wouldn't approve of. Who are used to having to explain conversations and reading to people who were never supposed to be part of them. Parental Thought Police are orders of magnitude more terrifying than state Thought Police.

Can you imagine an adult who has never had a private experience as a child? Maybe to a collectivist culture, that isn't so scary, but to me it's dystopian.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#87

Post by coryfklein »

existencebox wrote: post #44
shortlived wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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+…

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here. That exposure to hardcore porn online is okay because it's better than being raped as a child? Or it's okay because we can adapt to its negative influence and come out alright?

What if I want something better than "ok" for my kids?

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#88

Post by Fuxy »

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…

14 year olds are not children they're teenagers and trying to protect them will never work they're young immature and incredibly horny and because talking about sexuality is taboo in our culture completely lost and misguided. Their only source of information being the internet are you surprised?

This has nothing to do with the internet and everything to do with parenting they use their phone at the diner table because their allowed it's up to their parents to teach their children manners , respect, values and everything they think would help them in adult life.

This is the result of parents ignoring their children period.

The internet is not a play ground but the same way we don't build a fenced walk way from our house to the school our children attend we shouldn't be fencing off the internet.

It's not going to protect them, anybody can jump over a fence to abduct a child and the same way anybody can bypass a porn filter.

They need to grow up and this is part of it.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#89

Post by superuser2 »

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…

>Some kids who have poor role models are going to ask for oral sex from boys or girls that like them.

In some cultures, healthy and loving relationships between teenagers are beautiful. The emotional drama that follows - which advocates for infantilization use to say teenagers cannot be trusted to handle relationships - is part of growing up and learning to be a person. The idea that this is wrong, idiotic, deserving of punishment, immoral, or indicative of bad role models reflects a specific view of religious morality that not everyone shares. Teaching people to be ashamed of who they are and what they wan't isn't necessarily the best approach.

It's a fascinating cultural shift, and the religious right is fighting hard to stay in the 50s, but I think we're slowly moving forward. Then again, I was raised by atheist liberals, and we're not exactly popular.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#90

Post by Retric »

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…

The idea that there is any significant difference between someone the day before and after there 18th birthday is clearly rediculus. However, current law makes a massive distinction between them dispite bing willing to try 15 year olds as adults. And yes it's an easy problem to fix, just add a gradient to sentencing. From misdemeanor with fine for someone close to 18 up to long ter jail for hard core preteen porn. With an exception for voluntary transactions, aka if your 17 year old friend sends you a picture of his boys as a joke that's ok.
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