Caz
Last Chance Saloon
Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 836
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 Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:21 am Post subject: Pornography should not be a kids' game |
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http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22798946-5000117,00.htm l
| Quote: | Barbara Biggs: Pornography should not be a kids' game
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Barbara Biggs
November 22, 2007 12:00am
LAST weekend, I got a wake-up call for every parent.
The Federal Government's $84 million internet porn filter helps control kids on their home computers. But the same kids are accessing porn on their mobile phones and their PlayStation portables and Nintendos.
Any hand-held portable electronic toy that can download from the internet can download unmonitored porn.
A friend's teenager was visiting my home for the weekend and downloaded a porn video on to my computer. His innocent-looking PlayStation portable, or PSP, was plugged into my computer.
My screen was showing an inoffensive computer game, but when I reduced the screen to check on my emails, I found the porn video with the title, Teachers I'd love to . . ..
I phoned Dick Smith to ask about PSPs and found any hand-held game with internet access can download porn from any unsecured server they can pick up from almost anywhere.
The federal porn filter sits between the home computer and the internet.
Downloading on to a hand-held device and transferring files to the home computer bypasses the technology.
I also found a website specifically for sharing information and games for PSP users.
It listed a host of porn videos that can be accessed with PSPs.
Kids' sexuality is being hardwired by these videos. They are made by men for men and girls watching them are learning what they may think is expected of women. Boys are learning what men apparently like.
They are being programmed to like subservient sex.
Microsoft will release a simple training video in a couple of weeks, showing parents how to monitor their children's access to porn and how to effectively use the government filter.
And industry bodies such as the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association have introduced measures to restrict inappropriate content for users under 18. But this is only for Australian content.
So the message here is, there is no such thing as filtering technology that is "set and forget".
Technology is changing so quickly what we do to monitor and protect our kids from damaging internet content today will be superseded in a week, a month, or a year.
Instead of ploughing millions pf dollars into filtering technology, which will be outmoded before computer-dinosaur parents can work out how to use it, governments should be investing in education.
And passing laws that put the onus on internet service providers not to put offensive pornographic content on their servers.
Kids will always find material made to cater to their hormonal curiosity.
Earlier generations read raunchy magazines. The difference is that those images were mostly made with an appreciation of women in mind.
The images in cyberspace being accessed by our kids show a hatred of women.
They have titles such as: My Sister's Slutty Friend, Mother's I'd Love To . . ., Hurt Her Good.
Countering internet porn as part of the school curriculum is the only long-term and effective educational response.
And if calling it sex education is a political hot potato, call it sociology, history or communication.
With the level of crime, road rage, alcohol-related deaths and injuries, child bashing, sexual abuse, bullying and divorce in our community, why are life and communication skills not taught in schools?
Why not courses on anger management, parenting, relationship skills and a comprehensive sexuality curriculum?
Governments argue this is the domain of parents, but they are often exhausted from working to pay increasing mortgages to begin to address these issues, if they knew how.
Parents need to stop indulging kids and take their own heads out of the sand by learning the technology that shapes their children's lives.
And governments and politicians need to take a similar responsibility.
Invest in school curriculums that equip the next generation for life, not just careers.
Don't treat education policy merely as a way to win votes.
BARBARA BIGGS is the author of Chat Room, a teenage novel warning of the dangers of online grooming
www.barbarabiggs.com |
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