Naked Teen Girls on the Internet

At least in part, what this story leaves me thinking about is how society at most every level fails to understand technology and how it is changing our world. And instead of stepping up to that, we sometimes assign change or blame where it doesn't belong.

Manitoba police and justice officials are warning parents of a "disturbing trend" in which young teens are posing nude in front of web cams and sending the pictures out on the Internet. "I'm very concerned parents and families are losing control," Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh said yesterday, calling web cams a "peephole for the world into a child's bedroom."

At first blush, pardon the pun, it is easy to conclude from this that we are raising a generation of crazy nympho-maniacal children. And given the gender and age of some in my own home, don't think I don't worry about that. But the fact is not all that much has changed in some regards except for the technology.

While it feels embarrassing to say it now, in the working class neighborhood I grew up in through the sixties, there were at least two girls who, um, well, let's just say they enjoyed giving the boys of the neighborhood their first real peek at the opposite sex. And that's all it was. Strange as it sounds, I really am talking kid stuff here. There was no touching, not even a clear understanding or view of what it was we were supposed to be seeing at that young age.

But the world has changed. Given a web cam, in some cases the initial fumbling explorations of his or her sexuality by a teenager can have long lasting ramifications and take on the appearance of something entirely different and more ominous.

McDonald said cybertip.ca, Canada's national Internet pervert snitch line, has received 10 such complaints in the past few months alone. The majority of cases have involved girls between the ages of 13 and 15. "These images are permanent," McDonald said, noting the pictures could resurface years down the road and ruin careers. "They are not retrievable. They can cause life-long damage."

Insp. Boyd Campbell said Winnipeg police get a minimum of two or three complaints a month from parents whose children posed in front of a web cam and had the images make the rounds in cyberspace or at school.

What was once an innocent, if dumb thing now opens the door for who can say what, especially given the existence of on line predation by adults who would take advantage of the young.

Addressing issues like this are going to present some interesting battles between the left and right. Do we impose laws? Make it a crime for an adult to allow a teen unsupervised access to a web cam? Obviously this is a case for individual responsibility and the computers and their use in my home are closely monitored. But I do fear that people in homes where that isn't the case, where the parents beg off their responsibility, this is yet another problem they'll want the state to solve.

This post also available at Blogger News.

Comments

[Buckley F. Williams]

"the parents beg off their responsibility, this is yet another problem they'll want the state to solve."

Absolutely correct. Unfortunately there is a segment of people who become parents and then do not parent.

As far as the state becoming involved, there is that one incident where a mom was listening in on the phone to her teenage daughter's conversation because she was worried about the girl's behavior. She was forbidden from listening in on any more of her conversations (sorry I didn't look up the particuars but it's early, I'm tired and I still have to hide Easter Eggs).

Happy Easter!

[Dan]

Yes, Buckley, I remember the instance, too - but not all the particulars. Clearly some aspects of the liberal state already make it more difficult to parent in too many instances.