Your Kids May Be Telling The Whole Internet Your Secrets

from the i-learned-it-from-watching-you dept

Mon, Oct 22nd 2007 11:53am — Dennis Yang

Now that more and more of our lives are online, it's common to hear that torrid details of our lives somehow end up on the web browsers of potential employers doing background checks. Now, parents are now being warned that family secrets may be outed by their children, whose blogposts and comments may be a source of potentially damning information about their parents. The article claims that parents have lost jobs from their children describing their laziness, drug habits, and drinking problems. Police have arrested a woman, using her son's tales about his mother buying him and his underage friends a keg of beer as evidence. Perhaps instead of blaming the Internet for getting caught, perhaps these parents should take a look at themselves first, since it was their own illicit or inappropriate behaviors that actually got them in trouble in the first place.

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Filed Under: secrets

18 Comments

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unknowledgable geek, 22 Oct 2007 @ 12:18pm

But....
isn't congress blaming the internet for all bad things. Now, why can't parents?
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unknowledgable geek, 22 Oct 2007 @ 12:18pm

But....
isn't congress blaming the internet for all bad things. Now, why can't parents?
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chris (profile), 22 Oct 2007 @ 12:19pm

parents take responsibility?
yeah right. you might as well ask the sun to stop rising.
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Alexandar, 22 Oct 2007 @ 12:21pm

What about...
So, what happens, when the kid posts lies, because he is pissed at his parents for refusing to buy him the next xbox game, because he sucks at school or some other legitimate reason.

The employers or the authorities are probably going to act prematurely, and the parents will go through hell.

Too bad a kid, who posts lies and causes the parents to go through hell, doesn't realize that he will suffer 10 times worst than what the parents went through.
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Michael Long, 22 Oct 2007 @ 12:32pm

"Perhaps instead of blaming the Internet for getting caught, perhaps these parents should take a look at themselves first, since it was their own illicit or inappropriate behaviors that actually got them in trouble in the first place."

Love to see the same comment and sentiment attached to a story about bittorrent use.
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matt, 22 Oct 2007 @ 12:51pm

Re:
I'm confused where you're going with this? You telling me that we do illegal things because our parents did, therefore bittorrent is illegal? I am trying to draw for straws here.
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Chris Shaw, 22 Oct 2007 @ 1:55pm

"Perhaps instead of blaming the Internet for getting caught, perhaps these parents should take a look at themselves first, since it was their own illicit or inappropriate behaviors that actually got them in trouble in the first place."

Someone's mother gets arrested for buying her kid(s) a keg? Okay, how old were the kids? Sounds like just another case of overzealous American Puritanism making an appearance. If the kid and his friends are, say, 19 or 20, do you REALLY consider their mom's behaviour inappropriate? Do you REALLY think that keeping the drinking age at 21 is necessary, considering that most of the non-Islamic world sets it at anywhere from 14 to 19?

So what can we look forward to now? The morality police power searching blog aggregators in a fishing expedition for "illicit and inappropriate behaviors", such as spitting on the sidewalk, loitering, smoking in bus shelters and so forth (all illegal in most North American jurisdictions).

This report really makes me uncomfortable with the possible directions it could go if this becomes commonplace.
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Kilgore Trout, 22 Oct 2007 @ 2:18pm

Re: Re:
Let me fix the statement for you, so we can all understand:

"Perhaps instead of blaming the Internet for getting caught, perhaps these illegal downloaders should take a look at themselves first, since it was their own illegal behavior that actually got them on the receiving end of an RIAA/MPAA lawsuit in the first place."
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Oct 2007 @ 2:36pm

Re:
What if they were 10?
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elduderino, 22 Oct 2007 @ 2:50pm

sure breaking the law is bad
"Perhaps instead of blaming the Internet for getting caught, perhaps these parents should take a look at themselves first, since it was their own illicit or inappropriate behaviors that actually got them in trouble in the first place."

this is another example of why judges need MORE discretion and not less (via mandatory minimum sentancing etc) in so far as most families give a glass of champagne to 20 year old family members.. it should be up to a judge to actually (gasp) weigh in, or JUDGE the matter for themselves, in the case of a party of 20-24 year olds, most people would agree that a mother shouldn't be punished (too severely) for trying to keep her kids and their friends off of the streets and out of harm's way, it's not that parents are powerless over their children and resign themselves to "giving in" to their urges, it's about empowered parents taking a proactive role in their children's lives and safeguarding them. I can think of many situations where staying home drunk is better than being out drunk.

but in the event that some random "bad" parent is out there throwing keggers for their middle schoolers and then leaving unattended, well then I suppose it would be at the judges's discretion to throw the book at them.

they say discretion is the better part of valor.
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trav, 22 Oct 2007 @ 3:04pm

thanks dad for buying me a keg I love you
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Oct 2007 @ 3:56pm

Oh great. Now parents have another misinterpreted reason to blame their children and the Internet for their problems.

Articles like this one are clearly biased against children. The author somehow assumes that parents know how to use the Internet correctly and that the only secrets leaked are the ones leaked by children. In fact, I'm pretty sure that there have been more fuckups by parents posting damning information about themselves on the Internet than by their kids posting the info.

Of course, the headline "Parents don't know how to use the Internet" is likely to lose readers (and therefore also lose money) because parents reading the paper will feel insulted. But the headline "Your kids are telling the Internet your secrets" gets great ratings at the expense of making all children look like fools.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Oct 2007 @ 4:36pm

Re: Re:
What if the kid was talking out of his arse?
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darkbhudda, 22 Oct 2007 @ 6:39pm

Kids blog the darndest things
What if the kid was talking out of his arse?

If your kid is telling the truth, you're a bad parent. If he's making up insane lies, well you didn't raise him right, so you're a bad parent.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Oct 2007 @ 7:17pm

Re: Kids blog the darndest things
You're a cop, aren't you? That's the kind of deranged logic I'd expect...
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Barrenwaste, 23 Oct 2007 @ 2:05am

And here it is folks, another American lawsuit brought to you in part by insanity. Who cares if dear old mom gave her 19 year old kids some beer. Not I. Personally, and yes I have a son...somewhere, I'm of the mind that it's better at home than in some backwoods sandpit or abandoned hirise. Skipping that, our legal system allows for underage drinking...there are exceptions to the laws, so why have the laws? I can't think of a single case where there should be extenuating circumstances for drinking. "Ok, we are the beer terrorists, drink this or die, kid!" Lets take a quick peek at the age progression for several laws. It is legal to hunt at the ripe old age of 11. Hmm, you can kill but you can't drive, smoke, drink, or vote...cause that wouldn't be morally right. At 15 you can drive (some with adults, some without) and can now legally carry your gun to your hunting camp. Yup, we'll set you up for the drive-by but don't you smoke or drink! Next, you can have sex at 16, but only with 16 and 17 year olds. Better not get caught kissing your girlfriend if your parents held you back a year in kindergarten. Then, at 18 you can smoke and vote. I really don't have to point out how rediculus this is when taken in conjunction with the others do I? I mean, you can be a parent at 16 but you can't smoke or rent an apartment? WTF! Finally, at the age of 21 you get all the privilages of an adult....even though you have been legally culpable for all your actions since 15. Man is our country totally messed up or what?
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DONT SMOKE YOU CAN DIE, 11 Dec 2007 @ 4:51pm

DONT SMOKE YOU CAN DIE DONT SMOKE YOU CAN DIE
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DONT SMOKE YOU CAN DIE, 11 Dec 2007 @ 4:51pm

DONT SMOKE YOU CAN DIE DONT SMOKE YOU CAN DIE
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