Publish at October 21 2012 Updated May 09 2024
The Internet is now used by billions of people who find incredible resources there. But curiously, when it comes to children's use of the Internet, this extraordinary reservoir of resources is suddenly reduced to its darkest side. Under the keyboard and mouse of young users, the entire Internet becomes, in the eyes of adults, a den of pornographers, lovers of extreme violence and cyber-predators.
Parents are the "weakest link" when it comes to protecting children. 70% of them let their children roam the Web alone! And while 96% know about filtering software, only 39% use it. This weakness justifies the existence of impressive lists of resources for protecting young people and tackling the subject of ICT at home.
There's no denying the existence of dark zones and sites that are offensive to young people on the web. But we do need to ask ourselves a tricky question: if we insist on highlighting the worst aspects of the Internet, aren't we in danger of encouraging young people to go and discover them? Let's push the questioning a little further: where do we get this idea that young people are captivated by a site with inappropriate, violent or sexual content, and linger there?
The French edition of Slate features an article translated from the American edition, presenting the thoughts and work of renowned researcher danah boyd (who insists on keeping her name uncapitalized), employed by Microsoft, who has been exploring young people's online behavior for several years. She denounces the climate of "moral panic" that characterizes adults' behavior towards young people's Internet practices, with adults developing genuine anxiety about what their children might find on the web. But this security anxiety is in fact the expression of an irrepressible desire to see and control everything, to keep children in a bubble impervious to any negative stimuli from their environment. This is the best way to disarm them when they actually encounter, in their daily lives, facts and people who will shock them.
Let's be clear: Danah Boyd is not saying that children should be brought up the hard way, and voluntarily exposed to the ugliness of the world. She's simply pointing out that real life contains far more shocking content than life online... and that most children won't turn to delinquency or perversity as a result of a "simple" one-off exposure to shocking content. danah boyd, for example, has analyzed the reaction of many teenagers to Chatroulette, a video chat site, and found that most of them, when confronted with a naked person, are disgusted and quickly switch to another site. And the obsession with protecting young people from shocking content risks developing the opposite behavior to that which was intended: by dint of prohibition, we provoke the desire to see for oneself.
Why do our little ones seek out more or less tasteful material on the Internet? For the researcher, it's all down to the fact that the virtual network is the last place to explore free from the security constraints of our world. Today, it has to be said, we make our children's environment as secure as possible: they no longer go to school alone, they're constantly supervised both inside and outside the classroom, and very few kids can go for a bike ride without Mom or Dad behind them. This overprotection leads them to wander the Net. The researcher sees this as a way for children to explore, examine and apprehend the social world. In her view, there's nothing wrong with this attitude.
Of course, she doesn't want children to end up on sites that aren't intended for them. Of course, it's important to keep an eye on what your offspring are doing on the computer, but it's even more important to teach them how to surf safely, so as to leave them a margin of freedom. After all, one of the main tasks of a child's profession is to go beyond what parents want, think and believe. All the technology in the world is no match for this. And this aspiration to autonomy is one of the keys to the equilibrium of the adult in the making.
And let's not forget that the fight against cybercrime and exposure to shocking content is also a business, which thrives on the emotional soil of our aspiration to provide only the best for our children.
So it's all a question of moderation: "You don't leave your 5-year-old daughter alone in the street and tell her she can fend for herself. Thesame is true of the Internet. But, by the same token, you can't monitor and control her every move until she's 18, and then magically hope that she'll have no trouble getting into college if she's never had to make a decision on her own." says danah boyd, quoted in the Slate article.
Not seeing everything, not knowing everything, not running our children's lives for them: by learning to do this, parents also learn to grow up.
" Don't monitor what your kids do on the Internet", Katie Roiphe, translation by Peggy Sastre, Slate.fr, May 22, 2012
photo credit: "PictureYouth" via photopin cc
You might also like:
Treasures in the making, to know and to own, that last, that will last
The whole mechanics of value can be summed up in four characteristics. This may sound simple, but it does not take into account human inventiveness and the possibilities of interaction. This mechanism also works for the world of education.
Developing your personal brand: content, form and manner
Personal branding is important for professional identity, standing out, establishing authority and connecting with an audience. As the digital world continues to evolve, the ability to build and maintain an authentic personal brand will become increasingly valuable. The key to success lies in a few simple actions.
Multiplying our grip on the world. When activities from different worlds come together to produce creative and enriching solutions.
Young people denounce curricula that lead them to contribute to social and environmental disruption.
