e-Safety continually challenges me; the Internet continually fascinates me.
It is a world where everything and anything goes from the extraordinary to the downright weird, and it is one of the fundamental principles of e-safety: don’t believe everything you read; question everything.
I’m a firm believer in freedom of speech and the right to express oneself, but I also believe there are boundaries particularly when it comes to children. Quite frankly I don’t want my children exposed to some of the dross that crawls onto the Internet. It’s no longer a case of “if you don’t look for it, you won’t find it,” the prevalence of social networks means that things now find you, not the other way round.
Let’s take a story that found its way onto my Twitter feed (@esafetyadviser) a few days ago. The story concerns a man, a real man, getting married to My Little Pony, as in the cartoon character, who has taken the hump with an artist who apparently draws sexual fantasy art of the aforementioned pony –
Brony Engaged to Twilight Sparkle; Pens Angry Letter To Pony Artist – this is the story on MTV Geek, with the original letter allegedly HERE.
Now, I have no idea whether this is a prank, but given some of the stuff I see I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t.
I do worry sometimes just how far the Internet is going to push the boundaries. If there was a definition for “normal”, we would be redefining every few months. Some say the very freedom the Internet gives us is a good thing, some say it goes too far. I’m for the former, but with boundaries.
When I go into schools I am often asked, “What is appropriate?” That’s not for me to answer, my definition (or my boundaries) of appropriate and inappropriate will be different to yours, as it will be different to the ages of children.
But one thing is for certain, children are becoming normalized to content which would have made you and I shudder only a few years ago. Without any doubt this is causing behaviour issues. Are you a primary school teacher? If so, ask your kids how many of them play Grand Theft Auto. To many parents this is a simple driving game, but many parents won’t see (WARNING, ADULT CONTENT) THIS or THIS, and these are the tame ones!
The Internet continually fascinates me; e-Safety continually challenges me!