Why Oh Why Can't We Have A Better Press Corp (Local NPR Affiliate Edition)?

[elfs]

I was driving home the other day, listening to NPR, when I heard our local State Capital reporter, Austin Jenkins (shared by KUOW and KPLU), talking about how Facebook was teaming up with state Attorneys General to protect teenagers from, well, from themselves essentially.

Jenkins said, "When Washington state attorney general Rob McKenna speaks to school groups, he often asks a question: How many of you have been asked for your A/S/L? And a lot of hands will go up. Now most adult audiences don't know what that question means. But the kids all know that when they're asked their asl they're being asked for their age, sex and location ... probably by some creepy adult."

This is a lie. And Jenkins here (a) repeats the lie promulgated by cybernanny vendors and the attorneys general (b) continues to terrify parents that they simply don't understand the Internet well enough to protect their children and therefore, Something Must Be Done. Something to justify the AG's budget, I guess.

As well documented elsewhere, the infamous "one in five" statistic ("1 in 5 children has been sexually solicited online") in incredibly misleading. The actual statistic for solicitation is 19%, which is not-- quite-- one in five, but we'll let them have the rounding error. The real statistic is 3%, or more like one in thirty. In all the other cases that Department of Justice studied, the "child" (which included people as old as seventeen years) either deliberately joined a sexually suggestive chatroom and the solicitor did not know he was speaking to a minor, or (and this was by far the most common case, representing more than half of all come-ons) the minor was being addressed by another minor. Now that might indicate harrassment, and it might be something for parents to pay attention to, but it is not stranger danger or cause for alarm. The actual intersection of criminal intent and youthful stupidity is so low that there's simply not a statistical category for it.

By repeating the deceit that when a teenager gets an A/S/L he or she is "probably" being approached by a pedophile rather than your usual fellow horny teenager, Jenkins perpetuates the Myth of the Scary Internet and does neither teens or their parents any favors at all.

Comments

[scyllacat.livejournal.com]

I always block people as soon as they A/S/L me, but because I think it's rude. I mean, experience with answering it taught me to assume it was shorthand for "Are you old enough to fuck? Are you the gender I want to fuck? Are you close enough to fuck?" And those aren't questions I answer at first greeting. Of course, being an adult, I assumed that the Age part meant Are you Legal? and wasn't being asked by pedos on the whole.

I'm sure you probably have a more balanced perspective. I tend to feel crotchety on this "new" internet.

[blaisepascal]

I've thought that a good idea would be to teach kids, regardless of their a/s/l to answer "36/M/Mom's Basement".

[ceciliatan.livejournal.com]

Yah rly. I get asked my A/S/L because teenagers want to find out if I'm a horny teenager like them or if I'm a middle-aged housewife who just likes the gay subtext in Harry Potter.

Okay, so I'm not a housewife. But you get the idea.

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that there's someone else out there being honest about these sorts of things! I recently had someone tell me that slashfic writers should all be banned because they were a bunch of pedophiles (http://community.livejournal.com/fandom_flies/9429.html#cutid1). I said that many if not most were minors themselves, and, when called on it, had a bunch of slashfic writers tell him their stories of how they got started while minors... and yet, it didn't change his opinion at all.

Sadly, many people believe what they want to believe, as opposed to what is rational... and when people like us tell them that they're wrong, we get branded as supporting child molesters, etc.

Oh, and btw, I would be glad if you checked out what my LJ United community is about and joined us -- details in that post I linked you to -- as your voice carries weight amongst many people. We're currently trying to assist a very pro free speech, pro-fandom candidate for the LJ advisory board elections, and it would be great to have your support and endorsement, such as it is.

[kengr]

I got ranted by folks insisting *I* was a pedophile on a usenet group dealing with "adult" fiction of the kinky sort.

Why? Because I mentioned that some of my stories had teenagers in them.

Never mind that it was teens with other teens. Or that they weere based on fantasies I'd had when I was the age the characters were.

Nope. I must want to fuck those teens....

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

Yeah... it's been nutty all around, and very disturbing to me that LJs management has completely folded to these tiny, overzealout "Christian" people trying to save kids from themselves.

If you're tired of this kind of thing, I'd be glad to have you join LJ United too. Although we're currently supporting a candidate, we really weren't created specifically for this LJ election thing, but rather, as a centralized place for people who want to defend and protect the rights of people on LJ, ideally in ways that will help to inform LJ/SUP's management and make it clear that serious numbers of people support rational, unrestricted free speech on LJ, as well as several other basic issues. We believe that serious business arguments can be made for standing up for the rights of LJ's members, and we intend to make them with LJ's advisory board and management, whether we get someone elected to the board or not.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

Nevermind the fact that the overwhelming majority of teens know that the proper response to a come-on online is "whatever, creep," and close the window. They think it's no big deal. Because it is. It's not like at that moment in time, said creep knows who they are, where they live, where they go to school, or even what sex they are.

Not like, say, the RL predator waiting in the bushes behind the school.

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

Not like, say, the RL predator waiting in the bushes behind the school.

Or, more likely, at home.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

And as soon as you involve another country, the age limits are different.

Which means my experience has burnt age-16 into me as the critical date (and I was still jailbait for all that school year, because of my birthdate, for extra frustration-sprinkles). And my fantasies were directed in the direction of people I knew.

These guys are under the delusion that there's no such thing as a horny teen.