weekly response

As someone who has spent there fair share of time on the internet, and who is guilty of communicating regularly by it with friends, it’s hard not to feel a little bit like the kids they interviewed in some cases. The freedom to allow teenagers who are social outcasts in some cases, who are trapped in a community that doesn’t understand them and ridicules them for their differences based on social norms expected of them. I see the internet as an undeniable window of communication to ease their anger and sadness, by their ability to reach out and find other people who perhaps share the same interests as them and give them a chance to interact with peers who will accept those differences.
Which is not to say I think that they should be allow uncontrolled access or have no safety measures taken to ensure that they don’t end up getting involved with people who might hurt them. But from what I saw I felt a lot of the parents they spoke to in some cases were being crazily over protective, and ignoring their teenagers rights to privacy completely. Self destructive teenagers are going to be self destructive with or with out the help of the internet, and treating them like prisoners isn’t going to change that. They will always find another way to do it, or get more and more secretive of it.