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elfsI 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.
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.
