Posted on 01/27/2007 10:43:58 AM PST by wagglebee
The Mann Act is a related precedent.
I find it interesting how secular and some religious media focus on the children. Many act as if the porn trade has little effect on adults.
Similar programs are Remote Desktop Client, or RDC, for Windows (they even make a Mac client so you can control a Windows machine from a Mac), and ARA -- Apple Remote Access -- from Mac to Mac. Timbuktu used to be a popular cross-platform tool, but I think it's faded away since much of its former functionality has been built into the OS. There are similar *ix tools, but I haven't used them.
My favorite solution for places like classrooms and public libraries is that kind of remote access -- give the librarian or one big monitor with a split screen showing the display of every computer on the network. Too small to read e-mails, but enough to see if someone is viewing porn or playing games when they oughtn't.
That reminds me of another point I didn't hit earlier -- the kids will never have admin access under my roof. Today, one of the big problems is that the kids know more about computers than their parents do, but in the not-too-distant future that will no longer be true.
Children lack judgment. That is what makes them children. It is why they cannot drive, drink or vote.
When I talk about a strict white list, I'm talking about kids in the 6-7-8 range. My last post didn't go into a lot of detail or have a lot of nuance, but to clarify, I would have a sliding scale based on age and maturity. If a kid knows enough to ask for more privileges, he knows enough that I ought to at least consider and discuss the request.
I would not, unless I thought there was a serious reason for concern, read a kid's e-mails or monitor every Web click, just like most parents in the pre-Internet era wouldn't listen in on a kid's phone calls or read her diary.
There is no simple formula, but the right balance somewhere between knowing that your daughter has a crush on Ricky in her class, which she would be mortified if she knew you knew, and not knowing that she's doing live porn shows in her bedroom while you're watching TV.
My mom never set a strict curfew -- she asked where I was going and when I would be home. If I gave an unreasonable answer, we would negotiate. If I couldn't make it home by the appointed hour, I was expected to call, and if I didn't call I knew she'd be up and there would be hell to pay. In Reagan's famous quoting of a Russian maxim, her approach was "trust, but verify."
Even kids in their late teens today don't remember there ever not being an Internet. They've grown up using it and are more proficient at navigating their way around it than we can imagine.
That was true years ago, and is still somewhat true today, but not for much longer. Teenagers know a lot about how to use a Web browser, an IM client, and e-mail anonymizers, but it doesn't mean that they're ready to be Unix sysadmins.
I don't have kids of my own, but my brother has three, 8, 6 and 1. I think I could keep ahead of them for long enough that I don't need to any more. Not to mention that folks smarter than me are building better tools for that every day. They might be able to outsmart me on their computers, but not on my router.
The main threat isn't kids seeking out porn -- that's been easy at least since the first kid found Dad's Playboys under the bed and passed them around the playground some time in the Eisenhower administration. The threat is porn finding kids who don't know enough to know what it is, and wouldn't know enough to seek it out.
What would probably be preferable to pretending there was no such thing as porn or child molesters or whatever, would be to sit down with your kids when they are about eleven or twelve and TALK TO THEM about these things.
I wholeheartedly agree, but I think you might not go far enough. 11 or 12 might be too late. The fundamental message that parents should give to children, as soon as they're old enough to understand language, is that if you see or hear anything you don't understand, or that makes you uncomfortable, you should come to me immediately.
Let them know that there will never be a punishment for asking a question, and then answer the question honestly, at a level appropriate to the child's age. Any kid old enough to ask a question about sex is old enough for an answer, and not some BS about storks and cabbage patches. It's almost like being on the witness stand -- answer truthfully, but don't tell more than the you were asked. Let the kid know that follow-up questions are allowed.
Today's young experts will possess outdated knowledge tomorrow. The new youth will always be on the cutting edge.
I don't know about that. My dad still knows more about auto repair than I do, in large part because newer cars require fewer repairs and are more difficult for amateurs to repair. Computers are moving in the same direction.
Good morning, wagglebee! I'm resurfacing for a minute, I'll be back on FR in a week or two. I've been overwhelmed with one thing and then another, they've been lining up and taking numbers.
Am posting a Linda Kimball article in a couple of minutes and then back to dealing with the large set of waves incoming. Nothing life threatening, just all-consuming.
How big would you build the bubble, children are maturing every moment of their lives and at 13 they begin to chart their life's course.
Some of history's worst dictators began their quest for power serving apprenticeships or mounting the throne at early ages and left paths of destruction wherever they raged; society can only set examples, not guard against all risk.
The Internet just shrinks the distance between participants, it doesn't cause bad behavior.
Might as well ban cities because the risk is greater there as well.
It scary to think that half the people you meet have low IQs.
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