Unintentional Photography

For loyal readers (all 4 of you, hi K, Ehren, Leila and sometimes Dan!) I totally did not intend for this to become a photoblog. It just sorta happened. Anyway. I figured I owed a real post since I had just been pasting so many pictures...which for the record was done because I wanted to show some photographs to non-blogger friends (Eric, Nick are you two reading this? Probably not. That's okay.)

So, a real post...here's one. The paper today included an article regarding the myspace phenomena - not just myspace really, but myspace, xanga, livejournal etc. I think myspace got more hype only because it's like a junior version of friendster. The point of the article is that kids are using this stuff with no real concept of how widespread the readership of those sites are. Really. I mean, think about it this way - I think most of us "adults" understand that whatever we put on a blog site can theoretically be read by anyone and everyone. As a result we are, to varying degrees, circumspect as to what we write here. I don't post my name or major identifying details. Why? Because I'm a paranoid maniac? Not really. I mean I try to avoid giving people my address because really there are some creepy people out there. But beyond that, I am in a profession working with the same teenagers who use sites like myspace...and they know how to google. Google my name and yes you get pictures of me. What don't I want them doing? Finding this site. They don't need to read this type of thing about me. Neither do my bosses. Let's be realistic here for a minute - K and I know someone in grad school who essentially was fired from student teaching (and asked to leave our program) because she called the principal of her school a "fucking moron" on her lj site.

And kids are doing the same. They are effective cyber-bullies, they write things which they really shouldn't write. They post enough identifying details so that pedophiles can find them - there has been at least one case of such a bastard tracking a teenage girl down and kidnapping, raping, and killing her.

How do we protect the kids without banning them from cyberspace? Parents today can do their best - but if parents don't understand the technology, and many of them don't, how can they effectively manage the risk?

I don't know what the answer is here - but I'd love if someone did/could fill the rest of us in. Or really even comment. That'd be cool too.