12th Entry: Parents Beware!

I found this funny (but quite disturbing) article in the news today. It appears that in New Zealand, a disgruntled teenager opened an auction for "five naked photos of my Mum" on the Trade Me site after getting into an argument with his mother who ordered him to clean the family garage and sell any unwanted items over the internet. The auction site promptly pulled out the pictures, which the mother, ironically, disapproved saying that the pictures were quite decent and artistic and that she enjoyed the nice comments (as well as the prospect of receiving 50% of the proceeds of the auction sale).

Many perhaps believe that the computer age now poses a threat for the not-so technologically savvy parents regarding disciplining their children. In fact, the technique of “grounding” a child has changed over the past years. What’s the point of sending your son to his room to supposedly ponder on the wrong that he had done, when his room is fully equipped with a phone, television, computer as well as full access to the internet. As they say, in this day and age, the last thing you should do is to send your “grounded” child to his room, as who knows, he may be uploading your most shocking photo in the internet for the whole world to see. Personally, however, I think that this is a function of upbringing, rather than of technology. A child who has been adequately taught to differentiate right from wrong will (supposedly) do what’s right regardless of the temptation that technology might offer

Another equally compelling concern of parents nowadays is the massive amount of information (including the harmful and obscene kind) that kids stumble upon when surfing the net. It took some time, in fact, for my parents to buy us a computer as they were scared that some DOM might chat with me and my younger sisters over the internet. However, as the professors said a few meetings ago, a child is also equally likely to get harassed while walking in the streets, as when he is connected to the internet. I still believe that adequate supervision, rather than restriction is the best solution to the problem.

(Photo: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01371/child-computer_1371382c.jpg)