Porn on the Net (fwd)

[Publib Poster]

Sender: Patricia Bruder <pbruder at pilot.njin.net>
Subject: Re: Porn on the Net

Dan Lester wrote:

>Also, I hope that she doesn't think that this is the first time her son
has seen a naked woman in a picture...or the first time he's heard or seen
the rude language.  No, that does NOT make it right for it to be there....
but I'll bet that any embarrassment that the son had was not because of
the language, but because MOM saw him seeing the language.  o-)  

Well...much as I'd *like* to believe that, the Barnes exhibit pictures that
were on the front page of our local Sunday newspaper dispelled that!  I asked
my son on an earlier expedition for baseball sites where an alphabetical
search to the "s" index revealed "sex" but not "sports," what he would do if
he were searching on his own and came across that.  He replied, "Mom, I'd get
out of it.  I'm only interested in baseball."  Keep in mind, he's only 11 and
more interested in Nolan Ryan than Cyndi Crawford.  Next year, everything
could change!

I was much more interested, however, in how he would handle requests for
information.  One of the sports sites we went to was running a "free"
contest, but requested registration that entailed filling in personal
information. I went into my little mini lecture about *that* and now he's got
an awareness about something that concerns me a tad more than the pornography
issue -- something I also give caveats for in my adult training classes.  My
point with the Nintendo issue was just that kid sites should be kid sites all
the way around; since that's not happening, we need to prepare our children
with as much awareness as possible so *they* have the tools they need to make
mature, informed decisions.

Well, it was a learning experience for both of us. I'm glad it happened and I
will continue to monitor his use.  

>The world is a lot tougher and rougher than it was when I was 11 (1954),
but I know that I'd been exposed to all those things.

That's true, and I'd much rather he never have to see or participate in
Vietnam, the Gulf War, Bosnia, etc.

Just for clarification, let me reiterate that I do *not* believe in
censorship of the net, just veracity and non-misrepresentation of sites!

Patricia Bruder
Educational Information and Resource Center
pbruder at pilot.njin.net