On February 5, 2014, Kent Borg wrote: >Blocking "adult content" seems a recipe for thinking the problem is >solved, responsibility met, and moving on to other things...
It's best to think of blocking as one tool combined with (more importantly) education, as others have mentioned. >I don't think looking at a dirty picture is going to shatter a 7 year >old girl [...] I can speak from experience that this material can be really upsetting to kids. Despite being in my 50s, I still remember the day, when I was 8 years old, that a teenager in my neighborhood pulled me aside and showed me a photo that, at first, my brain couldn't parse. (Neuroscientists call this "experiential blindness.") Suddenly, I realized I was looking at two daddies chewing on each other's you-know-whats. I remember being very confused, running to my parents in tears, and having nightmares about it. OK, I grew up to be a reasonably well-adjusted adult anyway. But I definitely would have preferred not to have that experience at that age. >-kb, the Kent who can talk big because he has no kids and this is, >admittedly, all theoretical for him. :-) As a parent, I (and my wife) have always made sure our daughter knew age-appropriate details about sex, and we supervised her web surfing until she was old enough to handle herself. Nevertheless, when she clicked the wrong link one day, bringing up a violent porn pop-up, she was really upset by the imagery, even though we'd educated her that this stuff is on the Net. No permanent harm done (and an important lesson learned), but I would have preferred that she hadn't encountered it so young. Education is best, but blocking is helpful too. >This is an evolving problem that *none* of us understand. Well said, Kent. -- Dan Barrett [email protected] _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
