GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post

xenigo · 02-12-2006, 08:47 PM

I wrote a note to that writer.

Anick,
The article you wrote was well done, with one exception.

?In Middletown, Conn., police suspect that as many as seven teenage girls recently were fondled or had consensual sex with men they met on MySpace who turned out to be older than they claimed.?

There?s a larger problem, and one that I haven?t seen touched on in the recent articles published about MySpace. If you dig deeper, you will find a much more troubling problem of young underage girls who are stating ages older than they are. Such as 14 year olds stating their age as 26 years old. The problem with the way this article has been written, is that it artificially puts society on edge and inflates the danger people automatically associate with interacting with others online. It also puts a false assumption in the heads of readers about men online.

The problem is that these types of articles present a ?scare factor? that exists solely for the purposes of generating attention, and ratings in the media. Perhaps it should be said that when you put 54 million people together, such as on Myspace, you will inevitably have bad things that happen ? along with the good. This is how society works, in real life or online. There are a lot of wonderful people online, and there are a few bad apples as well. This does NOT mean that people should be afraid of meeting people online, but by putting a spin on an article talking about how young girls are being absued, that?s exactly what otherwise uninformed people come to assume.

I see articles and stories constantly published discussing the dangers of meeting people from online. The dangers of meeting people online are real, but not more so than the dangers of meeting people in real life. I think it would only be fair if within these articles, there could be some kind of clarity that puts a positive spin on online social interaction.

I?m just tired of people I meet online being afraid of meeting in real life because they?ve read a few too many negative news articles. I do realize this ?negative spin? sells the news, but I believe media companies should understand how publishing negative news can make people paranoid in a way that does not benefit anyone.

-Noah

02-12-2006, 08:47 PM
xenigo Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Oakland, CA Posts: 8,067	I wrote a note to that writer. Anick, The article you wrote was well done, with one exception. ?In Middletown, Conn., police suspect that as many as seven teenage girls recently were fondled or had consensual sex with men they met on MySpace who turned out to be older than they claimed.? There?s a larger problem, and one that I haven?t seen touched on in the recent articles published about MySpace. If you dig deeper, you will find a much more troubling problem of young underage girls who are stating ages older than they are. Such as 14 year olds stating their age as 26 years old. The problem with the way this article has been written, is that it artificially puts society on edge and inflates the danger people automatically associate with interacting with others online. It also puts a false assumption in the heads of readers about men online. The problem is that these types of articles present a ?scare factor? that exists solely for the purposes of generating attention, and ratings in the media. Perhaps it should be said that when you put 54 million people together, such as on Myspace, you will inevitably have bad things that happen ? along with the good. This is how society works, in real life or online. There are a lot of wonderful people online, and there are a few bad apples as well. This does NOT mean that people should be afraid of meeting people online, but by putting a spin on an article talking about how young girls are being absued, that?s exactly what otherwise uninformed people come to assume. I see articles and stories constantly published discussing the dangers of meeting people from online. The dangers of meeting people online are real, but not more so than the dangers of meeting people in real life. I think it would only be fair if within these articles, there could be some kind of clarity that puts a positive spin on online social interaction. I?m just tired of people I meet online being afraid of meeting in real life because they?ve read a few too many negative news articles. I do realize this ?negative spin? sells the news, but I believe media companies should understand how publishing negative news can make people paranoid in a way that does not benefit anyone. -Noah