StartUp Beat

At some point in the not so distant future, Americans will be dragged kicking and screaming into the reality of today's society. It kills me that they rail against the very things which they help to create themselves in those quiet private hours when they believe there is no one watching them. The problems we face cannot be blamed on a few websites or some perceived dregs of society boogeymen who are not us. The problem IS us, and we ARE the people who create these perceived dangers for our children. It is therefore just short of abusive to believe we can fight some noble fight to keep our children inside bubbles of ignorance and merely war against these social ills which we erroneously project onto other compartmentalized groups of people (or companies). We find ourselves and our children in a different age, and denying what comes with these times only hinders practical solututions. The rules have changed, and so has the reality of childhood itself. More and more, those old boundries which separated the grown up world from the world of youth are being unintentionally blurred by both technology and the easy access to information it creates. It is simply irresponsible to even attempt to recreate that idealized childhood of our own past for them. It is useless to today's children and teens, and they will be the first to tell you so. When we are honest with ourselves and stop to remember, our own childhood was not quite the little house on the prarie we'd like to believe it was. And we turned out ok for the most part. We simply MUST teach children to be aware of the dangers they face today. And while it may be unfortunate or unfair to us that our kids have to face such things, the truth is that it is the reality that we have to help them face, so they come through it as unscathed as possible. What many of you do not realize is that most of your children who are savvy enough to be online with their friends and visiting these sites *already know* about the dangers and try to protect eachother. This is a phenomenon which has risen out of necessity. Many of them are not as alone online as you think, and I don't believe we give kids the credit they deserve for what challenges they are capable of rising to. Wouldn't it be wise to have both parents and schools teaching them proper life skills which help them deal with today's information age realities? We are soon to be cave men to our children. We need the foresight to be honest with ourselves and provide them with the knowlege and skills they need to survive in a world very different from the one we grew up in. And I am sorry, but railing against websites and demanding they "do something!" to stop what we ourselves are creating is a narrow minded solution to the greater problem we are facing, and it amounts to shifting responsibility to others. Sadly, those who do not see a problem with a particular website rarely bother to come to its defense, and so we get a warped view that everyone is agreement that the site is terrible and morally corrupt. The sites are only as terrible as we ourselves make them, and personally I resent the constant calls for control when there is plenty of easily installed software for parents to block any sites they wish. These are often made by the same people who claim the government is too much into their business offline. Why then, is the internet so different? Why are moral issues exempt from this same hands-off philosophy? I am sorry. I just don't buy it. I know it will take time and more years of denial before we agree to face reality, but for the sake of our children, I hope it happens sooner than later. Children have a right to be prepared with the knowlege and skills which will protect them from the various dangers and pitfalls that today's world presents to them. And if to some adults that means breaking their whimsical ideas of the perfect childhood which they never had themselves, then so be it. I have taught my own children in accordance with these beliefs, and they have turned into very "undamaged" young adults who look back fondly on their earlier years despite exposing them to discussion of some rather seedy concepts at an early age. In the future, blocking children from factual information which helps them deal with problems on their own, in the name of somehow protecting their "innocence", will be considered a form of child abuse. It would seem that the NY Times has a rather unnerving knack for making or breaking websites, companies, and individuals, according to the moralistic opinion their journalist happens to take. Is this really how we want to decide what is best for our society?