Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Teenagers and the Internet

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 125 posts

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#111

Post by dragonwriter »

superuser2 wrote: post #89
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…

> It's a fascinating cultural shift, and the religious right is fighting hard to stay in the 50s

To the extent this is true, its not the actual 1950s, but a mythical image of the 1950s created later, that's mostly associated with that particular time because its a distorted image of what the world was like prior to the supposed liberal reengineering of society in the 1960s and beyond. (And probably because at the time it started to coalesce, "the 1950s" was an easily-romanticized childhood time of the audience the image was meant to appeal to.)

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#112

Post by superuser2 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #111
superuser2 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

> It's a fascinating cultural shift, and the religious right is fighting hard to stay in the 50s To the extent this is true, its not the actual 1950s, but a mythical image of the 1950s created later, that's mostly associated with that particular time because its a distorted image of what the world was like prior to the supposed liberal reengineering of society in the 1960s and beyond. (And probably because at the tim…

This is interesting. Where can I read about this?

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#113

Post by Gormo »

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…

> 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..."

But this isn't an invalid argument in discussions like this.

We're not looking at questions that pertain to intervene into the population aggregations here; we're talking about how we should approach the use of law to into the particulars of specific individuals' lives. "Data" may not be the plural of "anecdote", but the context in which we're attempting to make judgments here is the context that anecdotes, rather than data, most directly describe.

The fact that people can say "I did X and I'm okay" proves that there isn't a purely deterministic relationship between X, whatever it is, and bad results, and this is a valid argument against top-down, universalized restrictions on X.

> I have vague misgivings and a handful of anecdotes and not a lot of sound science.

Science addresses "is" questions. There are valid "is" questions involved in this discussion, and it's entirely appropriate to rely on science to answer them.

But the fundamental topic at hand here discussion is an "ought" question, not an "is" one, and "ought" questions are outside the scope of science.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#114

Post by timje1 »

BWStearns wrote: post #95
mattdeboard wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh dear, you really don't know much about Craigslist do you?

Wait.... so I shouldn't go to that "modeling shoot"? 0_O

Also, don't respond to the job ad for that farm in Ohio..

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/04/justice/craiglist-killer-d...

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#115

Post by bennyg »

BWStearns wrote: post #95
mattdeboard wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh dear, you really don't know much about Craigslist do you?

Wait.... so I shouldn't go to that "modeling shoot"? 0_O

Just like being in the real world. Make smart decisions to the best of your ability and you'll be alright. There's nothing inherently wrong with the internet. Some people have things inherently wrong with them, and some of those people use the internet. Nothing to see here.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#116

Post by GrinningFool »

Blahah wrote: post #100
GrinningFool wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My biggest concern is that it shows many things as normal and healthy that aren't. Warning - intimate details lie ahead. As an example - in recent years, this has become increasingly common: women fellating until they gag, almost vomit, drool mucousy streams of saliva all over their partner's genitals, and then slurp it all back up. Most of them look truly miserable while they're doing it. The guys look like they thi…

Whether or not we should worry about it hinges on a lot of uncertainties, including: - Whether some women really do enjoy it. Granted, it's unlikely that most do. Given that some people really do enjoy extreme BDSM, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that some - even many - women enjoy deepthroating. People can consent to whatever sexual activity they want. - Whether children do really form an image of what pe…

On the first point, sure - I conceded in writing that there is likely to be a subset of women who do enjoy it. But I think we can agree that the physical discomfort of it will be a turnoff to most.

As to your second point - yes, certainly teenagers can distinguish fantasy from reality. But the major difference here is that it's not portrayed as fantasy. In a movie, everybody knows that the actors get up and walk away at the end of the day - nobody is really getting shot.

On the contrary when it comes to porn, there's no doubt that the acts are really being performed, and by real people. So while a young person's ability to distinguish fantasy from reality shouldn't be underestimated in the context of movies, video games, etc -- we have something of a different beast here.

You're right that it is an uncertainty, but certainly a logical case could be constructed for at minimum further study of this idea. Unfortunately, we as a society won't do that, because we have to pretend that our teenage children aren't sexual creatures.

What's left, then, is to make best guesses based on logic. It's a poor substitute for science but in this area it's as close as we're going to get.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#117

Post by 3pt14159 »

mimiflynn wrote: post #110
3pt14159 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to be 100% crystal clear: I think teenagers still make mistakes and I do not support photos of them being in general circulation in any form. I am upset at a boyfriend getting charged with CP possession when his girlfriends parents find out that they are sexting. I also am against photos of teenagers getting distributed, but some teenagers look for teenage porn, and it shouldn't be as big of an offence as actual…

you might want to add this as an edit to your original comment. Its getting lost over here.

I would if I could. But either way I don't think the majority of people are misunderstanding it.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#118

Post by refurb »

superuser2 wrote: post #107
refurb wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The religious right? That makes no sense. It's the religious right that often encourages marriage at a young age. I've never heard of members of the religious right "shaming" teenage dating.

The religious right encourages abstinence-only education, discourages contraception, and absolutely does not want teenagers in dating relationships or having sex for pleasure. They want them to move from supervised, limited, nonsexual courtships to child-producing marriages as quickly as possible. Also the less extreme religious right that I see recognizes the need not to be pregnant in college, and wants the whole p…

We must have different experiences with the religious right.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#119

Post by peterashford »

qb45 wrote: post #51
DanBC wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 consequenc…

Have you ever met a teenager? They're fucking idiotic. Partially because being protected from consequences of their actions, they can afford being idiotic.

You make this sound like a sociological issue but it's really biological. Teenagers are idiots because their brains / hormones are going through rapid and dramatic changes that retard their ability to make good judgements about what is safe and what is not.
Post reply on HN