Been struggling this week with some British politics (for a change!). I'm guessing you've all heard about Claire Perry's attempts to get all parents invading the privacy of their teenagers?... Ok, that was hyperbolic, so let me fill you in...
Claire Perry, David Cameron’s new adviser on childhood (and the Tories’ answer to Harriet Harman) has stated that parents should insist on seeing their children’s texts and internet exchanges.
Claire Perry has said that in a world where youngsters are surrounded by online dangers, parents should challenge the ‘bizarre’ idea that their children have the right to keep their messages private. Parents should feel more empowered to challenge their children over their phone and internet usage and read their messages.
She reckons ‘sexting’ goes on in ‘pretty much every school in the country’(she's probably right). And that parents should feel ‘empowered’ to challenge their offspring about their use of mobile phones and social media sites such as Facebook, and demand to look at their messages if necessary.
This has caused quite a lot of controversy...
My initial response: Do one, Perry!
If it wasn't for conservative attitudes, society would be able drop its hangups and taboos about sex and tell children how the world works without stigma or embarrassment. Then children wouldn't want to hide it out of shame. Forcing this behaviour underground is what's made it so incredibly dangerous.
I mean, I do get it - the Internet can be a dangerous place for kids, and parents should take all necessary precautions to keep their children out of danger.
But it does beg the question: What about trust? Surely trusting your children and encouraging a more open relationship within the family should be the priority? If your child knows they can come to you about anything that they feel uncomforatble with, should that not be sufficient security?
Also, be real. Kids are always one step ahead of the game and potentially forcing them to take more drastic measures of privacy in the deepest, darkest Internet isn't really the best strategy? If a teenager wants to do something, they'll go to pretty much any length to do it.
Anyway, that argument aside, Perry's annoying. Try as she might (and she's tried hard) she has still yet to be reshuffled into government. Yeah, Dave's made her his adviser on childhood; but she's thrown herself into her new non-job, by telling people how to parent. That's her problem. She's crossed the line of advice and jumped straight into telling people how to raise their children. This is ultimately going to get people's backs up.
Previous to all this, I disliked her because she tried to make Internet porn opt-in (i.e. you would have to go to your ISP and ask to be allowed to view porn sites). Needless to say she didn't get that one passed (35% of the vote, I think it got?).
The ban on porn wasn't really my issue, if I'm honest. No, my problem was more with the fact that it was entitiled the 'Independent Parliamentary Inquiry into Online Child Protection', and yet, this is the branding on the back of the report:
For the avoidance of all doubt, Safer Media’s charitable objects read as follows:
"The protection of good mental and physical health, in particular of children and young people, by working in accordance with Christian values to minimise the availability of potentially harmful media content displaying violence, pornography and explicit sex, bad language and anti-social behaviour and the portrayal of drugs, and with a view to the reduction of crime by;
A) raising awareness and increasing understanding of the impact of harmful media content among policy makers, service providers and the public.
B) educating the public and providing guidance and support to enable parents and carers to better protect children and young people.
C) monitoring media content for compliance with established national guidelines and standards required by the law and seeking strengthening of these guidelines and standards as necessary in the light of academic research.
D) commissioning and conducting research and disseminating the useful results thereof."
Oh, hello Christians! Not so ‘independent’ after all, eh?
What was even more worrying for me in the report was the panel’s final recommendation:
"8. Finally, the Government should consider the merits of a new regulatory structure for online content, with one regulator given a lead role in the oversight and monitoring of internet content and in improving the dissemination of existing internet safety education materials and resources such as ParentPort."
Lest we forget, Safe Media’s stating objectives don't stop at just pornography…
"...to minimise the availability of potentially harmful media content displaying violence, pornography and explicit sex, bad language and anti-social behaviour and the portrayal of drugs..."
Sounds a lot to me like Perry and her Christian mates are tring to censor the internet outright!
And, isn't it called an inquiry? Well, I couldn't find anything to indicate that an open call for submissions or evidence was ever issued.
ANYWAY, I've digressed...
Also this week, in a speech to the Fabian Society Women’s network yesterday, Labour shadow minister Diane Abbott called for better sex education in an attack on Britain’s “hyper-sexualised” and “striptease” culture.
"It’s a hyper-sexualised British culture in which women are objectified, objectify one another, and are encouraged to objectify themselves; where homophobic bullying is normalised; and young boys’ world view is shaped by hardcore American pornography and other dark corners of the internet."
Loosely, I tend to agree.
She's striving for better education and better tools for parents to control what sort of content their children can access. She proposed that it should be easier for parents and teachers to block adult and age-restricted material for kids.
Ok, so now we're back to internet censorship...
...But, is it about time?
The other thing that's got me going (vomming) this week is the story of Giovanna Plowman; otherwise known as Tampon Girl.
About Tampon Girl:
Giovanna Plowman, is just a teenager, a teenager who happened to upload a video of herself sucking on a used tampon to her Facebook page on Sunday. The video (apparently) shows her removing a tampon off camera and proceeding to put it in her mouth while listening to the song “212” by Azealia Banks.
I wouldn't know. I haven't watched it. I don't intend to watch it. Nor will I embed it here. You can click here if you want to watch it; but in the interest of being honest, I am judging you.
What happened to Tampon Girl:
Anyway, the video was re-uploaded to YouTube later that same day by YouTuber FizzyShizzles, where several viewers posted their reactions to Plowman’s video (in similar vein to the response videos associated with Two Girls One Cup and Interior Semiotics), but both copies were subsequently removed for violating the sites’ terms of services. Eventually, a mirrored copy was re-uploaded to LiveLeak and Redditor Madclown55 then submitted the LiveLeak video to the /r/cringe subreddit, where it received over 160 up votes and 160 comments within 24 hours.
By Monday, the “Giovanna Plowman” Facebook page received over 161,000 subscribers and the @ItsGiovannaP Twitter account received over 8,100 followers. Posts about the video could also be found on Tumblr under the tag “#giovanna plowman.”
Yes, it went viral.
And, she's still being widely discussed online. Milder discussions involve whether the video had been faked, and more vicious rumors were that she killed herself.... She hasn't, the girl is still alive.
But the video's anuthenticity is still questionable. Although I read somewhere that apparently the video "clearly shows clotting indicative of menses" (GRIMVOMGRIM) and it has been noted that if this video is a hoax then it was an extremely clever hoax with expert attention to detail. And to be fair, this poor kid doesn't seem bright enough to pull that off.
As indicated by her response...
Famous indeed babes, but at what cost? Whether she hoaxed the video or truly sucked on her own tampon, this kid is having to deal with people telling her to kill herself, one comment on the video even tells Giovanna to "drink bleach" (which is a reference to bullied suicide victim Amanda Todd).
My initial question: Where are her parents?
This week's been super conflicting for me! One minute I'm pissed off with British politics and how the Tories are (as Tories do) trying to enforce Government censorship to further contain society and moreover, dictating parenting styles...
And then the next minute, I see the extremes of internet freedom for teenagers, demonstrated by Tampon Girl, and I am hypocritically siding with the Tories, whilst indignantly berating and ridiculing Claire Perry in my head at the same time.
WHAT'S A LIBERAL GIRL WITH A LOVE OF THE INTERNET AND A MORAL CONSCIENCE TO THINK?!
Tampon Girl is never likely to live this down. For the rest of her life she's always going to be "the girl who ate her tampon", and presently she's being treated horribly and threatened beyond belief. Say she decides in a few years' time, when she's not reveling in the fame so much, that she wants to have a career. That information will never be erased from the internet; her future emlployers will be able to see that. Who let her ruin her own life like this? I would like to dictate some parenting styles to her parents....
Obviously this is a very extreme case of the dangers of internet freedom for young people, but there is a lot of disturbing things out there - pro anorexia and bulimia sites, self harm sites, suicide forums... It's a horrible place if you know where to look. And that's putting aside any internet trolls or preditors who take joy in ruining others' lives.
I think I am nearing the conclusion that perhaps I am a little more conservative than I would care to admit... The thought of having children in this day and age frightens me (check this previous post for my thoughts on having kids). We do live in an over-sexualised society where there is unlimited access to information. I'm definitely not qualified to have an opinion on parenting; but I am fully aware that if the time ever came, I would have to make some big decisions about the amount of freedom I allow my children to have. And is it as easy as providing an open relationship with your children? Or is censorship and monitoring the only way to guarantee their online safety?
In any case, this has led me to realise a gap in the market...
FREE BUSINESS IDEA:
Someone should develop some software for Tory parents that cc's them into their children's Facebook messages and emails them a report of the URLs they've visited after each computer sesh!
Think like a Tory. Make some dough.
Help me out with my internal conflict this week? Let me know what you think.
L.
