Don't Let Something Like The Truth Get In The Way Of Fear-Mongering
from the la-la-la-i'm-not-listening-to-you dept
All the scare stories about MySpace seem to be contagious, with a Philadelphia TV channel now labeling the Nintendo DS as the pedophile's best friend because of the Pictochat application that lets DS users talk to each other. Of course, the whole story is predicated on a fundamental misunderstanding of how the application and the game system's wireless connections work, but the reporter found an "Internet safety expert" to repeat the errors, so they must be true -- or at least true enough to run with. A reporter getting something like this wrong certainly isn't unique; what's interesting here is that the reporter contacted another source that explained all of this, including how the system worked and how low the risk really is but apparently chose to ignore it since the story would have been far less captivating. The application in question doesn't work over the Internet, but rather simply by connecting in an ad-hoc manner to other DS machines within 30 to 100 feet, making the likelihood of actually running into anybody using it -- let alone some sort of sexual predator -- in the wild pretty low. Of course, this "expert" talks about predators anywhere in the world using the anonymity of coffee shops to hide, making them impossible to track, oblivious to how the application works, or the fact that the WiFi on the DS can't connect to most commercial hotspots. Perhaps we're getting used to media ignorance when it comes to technology, but actively ignoring the truth is taking things a step too far.
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hmmph
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Re: hmmph
Me Too! I'm pretty sure that this group includes all of North America...
;)
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Re: hmmph
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typo
should be "an"
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why not banning loud speach??
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No Subject Given
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Truth in the Press
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Re: Truth in the Press
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Re: hmmph
Come on, Mark. The article is about journalists (i.e. the "media") not doing responsible reporting. What makes you think that stories about our government and Bush are exempt from irresponsible journalism?
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Re: Truth in the Press
I'll hazard that all media publications ever presented are true. Or, they're all not true. You can't have both - reporters can strive to be accurate but they will always be flawed in some way. A report on a murder investigation only uses a few sources of information - that definitely doesn't tell the story from every angle possible (because the information isn't public - eg. in the accused's mind). Picking and choosing your sources is exactly what has happened in this story, with the predictible consequence that somebody (us) "knows" differently.
This is a task for philosophers, not the courts, Truth and accuracy are subjective, and it's rather dishonest of us to try and make accusations against degrees of infractions rather than that they exist at all.
I think I can pretty well support that argument by the fact that people disagree about current events. If it were "fact", why would we argue about "what happened"?
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No Subject Given
Seriously... how long have computer games allowed us to play people we have never met?
I started playing starcraft online when i was around 7 or 8 and i have never been kidnapped by random internet people...
I think instead of parents getting all worked up about their kids playing against random people on the internet, and trying to penalise the games for this, they should maybe learn how to become better parents. I know this sounds crazy but it just might work ohmy.gif .
Maybe parent should stop trying to make the government and companys raise their children and do it themselves. Dont get me wrong, i think game ratings are a good thing and all, but the parents need to learn how to use the rating to decide if their kid should play the game. After all i think thats why they do that...
Not just that parents need to learn how to keep track of what their kids are doing, its not that hard to sit down and talk to your kids...
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No Subject Given
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Re: No Subject Given
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Re: typo
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Re: hmmph
It is all about what people get out of it and their perspective on the matter. Does it justify them? Does it make them right? Does it make them wrong?
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I like this quote
Laurence J. Peter
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Re: No Subject Given
I am a parent and is the parents responsiblity to make sure that we look into or research the thing we give our children exspecialy anything that deal with technolagyI agree with "Lame ass parents cry about everything....DON'T BUY YOUR KID STUFF if you think it could harm your child! Dont spoil the fun for everybody else"
I am a parent of three and is the parents responsibility to make sure that we look into or research the thing we give our children especially anything that deal with technology.
The world is a dangerous place and if you are not going to talk to your kids and explain that to them someone else will. (Gang Members, Dope heads, Sexual Predators, Etc.)
WAKE UP!!!
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Re: McDonald's
...unless of course the kid's parents are watching their children like they SHOULD BE doing.
...but no, parents prefer to ignore their kids, and then complain that no one was watching their children when little Billy/Suzie "wonders off".
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Text the word "KIDTOY" to 5551212
And second, ask anyone with a Nintendo DS if they use that useless "Picto Chat" program - more than likely, you will hear them laugh at you. Picto Chat is next to useless!! Especially when it only goes 30 to 100 feet, and they could use a Cell-phone's Text Messaging to text the word "KIDTOY" to 5551212 and get to just about anyone around the world!
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Re: No Subject Given
I finally agree with you on this one! If you, as a parent, make a decision to buy something for your child to use in your home, you're definetely responsible for what goes on with its use.
And, as a parent, if you decide not to buy the product, should have enough sense to know somebody's parent bought it and your child will be using it without you. So teach your kid what to do.
It is not the governments responsibility to raise our kids, but I think we should be able to rely on all levels of government to help protect our children.
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Re: No Subject Given
I agree with you, but you don't have to stereotype parents.
We're not all like the trailer trash you're obviously use to.
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Re: No Subject Given
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Re: hmmph
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No Subject Given
The more you try and stop them, the more determined they get. No level of restriction will stop them from scoping out schools and nabbing a young girl.
The best thing to do would be to keep a good eye on your children, and if you don't want paedos using their Nintendo as a way of getting at them, take it away. For the record, no child has been molested as a result of using his Nintendo (I assume it would have hit the MSM, or at least gaming news sites), and only a few gullible (read: stupid) teenage girls have been roped in by predators on MySpace.
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