Youth & Social Networking - Henry Jenkins interview

I enjoyed reading this interview between Henry Jenkins and Danna Boyd. I was unaware of the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) prior to reading the information contained in their interview. In my opinion, I agree with the two of them. Access to online networking sites offers a host of supplemental resources to the education setting. From interactive sites like Blogger and Wikispaces, teachers can expand on topics derived in class. Such modes of expansion include furthered outside conversation within classmates and teacher, supplemental video/text that can be easily accessed and posted/discussed by everyone, and those who are less likely to speak out in class have a chance to post their ideas. By passing the DOPA legislation, all of this valuable education is likely to be lost, rather then expanded upon. DOPA legislation is also cl assist to a certain extent, because it limits the access to public spaces in Federally Funded locations, I.E. schools and libraries. Kids who use these means to communicate will be disconnected, leaving only those privileged enough to have a computer in their homes. The poverty stricken, lower, and working classes should not have to suffer through another act of oppression in the classroom, which is what this law would be perpetuating.

In regards to the central point of the legislature, the "Predator"t, I think this part of the interview sums this up sufficiently:

"Predators do not use online information to abduct children; children face a much higher risk of abduction or molestation from people they already know – members of their own family or friends of the family. Statistically speaking, kids are more at risk at a church picnic or a boy scout outing than they are when they go on MySpace. Less than .01% of all youth abductions nationwide are stranger abductions and as far as we know, no stranger abduction has occurred because of social network services. The goal of a predator is to get a child to consent to sexual activities. Predators contact teens (online and offline) to start a conversation. Just as most teens know to say no to strange men who approach them on the street, most know to ignore strange men who approach them online."

The article argues that the 86 million people (mainly teens and young adults) who use sites like MySpace and Facebook are very safe in their navigation through these sites, and that kids use the same common sense while online as they would offline. Fear is a powerful agonist; just a small dose is enough to diffuse like wildfire in a country that has grown accustomed to being on edge-in our country. It would be a shame to lose such valuable, thought provoking resources like the above mentioned to such an exsaderated, unrealistic fear.