[1445] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
So what is the answer?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Barry Shein)
Tue Oct 8 21:58:51 1991
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 21:59:09 -0400
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
To: edtjda@magic322.chron.com
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: Joe Abernathy's message of Tue, 8 Oct 91 19:45:56 CDT <9110090045.AA14512@magic322.chron.com>
If you plop a 10 year old in front of a cabled television set, how do
you stop that kid from turning to a blue channel or movie?
If you let a kid near a telephone, how do you prevent the kid from
dialing some 900 "Let Me Suck Your Ear" number?
If you send a kid to buy a magazine, how do you stop the kid from
perusing the flesh mags etc?
If you send a kid into a large library, how do you keep the kid from
heading straight for Marquis de Sade, Joy of Sex or whatever it is
that horrifies the parent or their proxies?
The point is:
If anyone thinks that computers or computer networks somehow will
replace the care and sincere concern of the adults who are supposed to
guide them they are deluded.
The same people who will plop their kid in front of a TV and then be
horrified to come back several hours later to see that their latchkey
kid is engrossed in some X rated movie are the same ones who will now
try to blame their own disinterest and failure to guide their children
on yet another box full of wires.
Face it, if the parents (or teachers etc) don't care about the
children in their charge, how can the rest of us make up the
difference?
...We can't.
The answer is:
You can't care and not care simultaneously.
Blaming problems on inanimate objects is not generally considered a
healthy approach to life.
Someone will just have to care.
Just as much as you have to keep a kid out of traffic rather than rail
against the "dangers and irresponsibility" of automobile technology.
If they can't, then computer networks are the least of their problems.
To be frank:
I find your questions leading, not peculiar to computer networks in
any way (you could be asking about public libraries or cable TV or
telephones or magazine stands, just replace the words and your
question is just as apt), and reeking of a political agenda that you,
and only you, think is clever.
That's why you get so much heat on this list.
You're transparent as hell, Joe, these are smart people here, they're
not fooled by your cheap muckraking, they're just offended.
So wipe that self-satisfied smug look off your face and realize you're
making a complete jackass of yourself in front of a lot of people.
-Barry Shein
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