Other Issues in Media and Society

Aren’t you curious about your classmates’ opinions and creativity? Be curious and visit their blogs. You can see how each of them writes about interesting topics that are related to mass media and communication. You can also leave a comment on their blogs and express your own opinion about their themes. 

1) Tereza vokata-) violence in videogames.    http://violenceinvideogames-mediaandsociety.blogspot.cz/

Tereza's blog is about Video Games and Violence. I like her view on this topic. She mentioned that parents should protect their children from negative influences of video games. I found this topic very controversial!

2) Elisabeth created the most interesting blog, full of interesting opinions about unethical and superficial world. By reading her blog, I have learned many new information about public figures and their wrong behavior, for instance. I highly recommend you to visit her web page. -) http://mediaethics.blog.com/

3) http://mediasportrayalofbeauty.blogspot.cz/2014/05/how-i-see-it.html?showComment=1400490083341. 

This blog shows how much we should be critically aware of portrayal in media.  You can read about many negative and unrealistic consequences, which media can cause. I found this blog very interesting and full of interesting opinions. Great job!

4) http://tkachevapolina.wordpress.com/2014/05/12/current-events-i/comment-page-1/#comment-7.   

Another blog I have visited is about Beauty vs. Media. Palina pointed out the negative influence on children of TV show named "Pageant". This show is a great example how children can become sexual objects. I strongly recommend you to visit this blog for further interesting information and also watch the "Beauty Pageant"!!!

5) Nguyen Tuan Son

http://privacyandmedia.wordpress.com/

The last blog, I would like to recommend you is about media vs. privacy. My classmate talks about very critical issue how social media may affect your life  in a negative way. For example, find out about your current location, etc.... We should be more aware of our acts on social network and protect out privacy!

THANK YOU FOR CREATING GREAT BLOGS!

How I See It

Children are our future, and we should teach them and protect them from harmful influences. The increasing use of the Internet in our society brings both positive and negative effects. Children should be taught to acknowledge and be aware of negative consequences. Are we doing enough to create safety for the youngest members of our society?

There are many ways in which we can protect our children from inappropriate behavior. One way we can help is to ensure that children are involved in more age-appropriate activities after school, such as sports, so there will be a limited amount of time for them to browse on the Internet. In addition, parents should become more aware of children’s online activity—for instance, where they surf or to whom they talk. There are many ways to find out about their Internet activity, such as the many available programs that log browser and messaging usage so that parents can see their children’s Internet activity, etc.

We should not stop there. Parents should consider whether they are spending adequate time with their children so there will be less time that they spend on the Internet. In the case when parents have a busy work schedule, they should involve their children in more activities in their free time, such as sports, so there will be a limited amount of time to browse on the Internet. Pedophiles like to look for loners—children who feel they have no friends. Lonely kids, especially, tend to create parasocial relationships.  Also, parents and teachers, at least, should teach all children to defend themselves from Internet safety risks. They should be informed about the prevalence of predators and taught not to put their personal information on the Internet, for example. Another great way to decrease pedophilia over the Internet is to set up more strict laws. For example, laws could be strengthened to require sites that cater to children to track the identities of their users more closely and prevent abuse. An increased chance of being exposed and punished will deter many borderline pedophiles.

One interesting area that could hold great promise is the use of advanced technology to detect and combat inappropriate and illegal behavior by sexual predators on the Internet. Companies already use data mining and pattern recognition techniques to detect credit card fraud, identity theft, computer hacking, etc. Governments use data analysis to detect and locate likely terrorists and financial criminals. The same techniques for detecting suspicious patterns can be used to find people who harm innocent children, and bring them to justice. For example, sophisticated software could be attached to chat rooms that cater to children, and this software could detect the differences in language use, subject matter, speed of typing, number of contacts, etc., that would indicate a potential child abuser.

And what about the sexualization of young girls through popular media? Have you ever deeply considered the intensity of the portrayal of children’s sexual provocation in media, and its impact on pedophiles? Current social media indirectly teach children to act sexually in any situation. The result is that they are treated as sexual objects from a young age. It might also create superficial values in them. We should stop ignoring the negative consequences of sexualization of underage people. We should consider also that it deepen even further the inappropriate desires of those who have pedophilic tendencies. I believe that with restricted sexualization or more strict censorship of media images of underage, sexy girls in media, there would be smaller number of sexual offenders. All of these stimuli combined with easy access to the Internet only make the problem more intense. You can see bellow an example of little model named Ashley Milne who is sexualize from youth age.

This is a huge, ongoing problem in our current society that deserves more attention. Sexual abuse has a negative impact on the quality of life. It can be horribly destructive to our psychic and social life. The end result could be psychological problems or anxiety, for example. As adults, most of us are not completely aware of the terrible consequences.

We will never be able to eliminate the problem with pedophilia completely, but if we put resources into it and work together, we can definitely decrease the number of victims of sexual abuse in the future. The methods mentioned above are only a few possibilities. 

Women of Influence: Object of Attention.
Digital image. 'Ashley Milne-Tyte' 9 July 2013. Web. 12 May 2014.

References:

Jefferson, Cord. "Born This Way: Sympathy and Science for Those Who Want to Have Sex with Children". Gawker. July 9, 2012. Web. <http://gawker.com/5941037/born-this-way-sympathy-and-science-for-those-who--want-to-have-sex-with-children>.

"Child sexual abuse". Wikipedia. (D. n.) Web. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sexual_abuse>.

For Further Research

Digital image. Before It's News. 4 Nov. 2013. Web. 12 May 2014.

I have seen many unique, informative articles by knowledgeable authors that can be found online about pedophilia. You can see below three interesting websites that I highly recommend you to visit for further information. To gain knowledge about pedophilia is absolutely valuable. Unfortunately, the growth of social media has had a corresponding effect on the growth of online predators.

1] I would like to recommend that you visit the website Before It’s News, which informs the reader about a new virtual figure. This virtual child is a new tool for catching online pedophiles all over the World. This is an absolutely great idea. We can also participate in helping to eliminate pedophilia by spreading all over the media that there is a chance to sign a petition for stopping sex tourism via webcam. For further information, you can watch this fascinating video:

"A New Way To Catch A Pedophile: Virtual Child (Video)". Before It's News. November 4, 2013. Web. <http://beforeitsnews.com/blogging-citizen-journalism/2013/11/a-new-way-to-catch-a-pedophile-virtual-child-video-2449378.html>.

2] This article linked below discusses great ideas for how to protect children from predators. Even you are not a parent yet, you should definitely read this article to gain some interesting tips:

"Parenting: Protect Your Children from Internet Pedophiles". Dr. Phil. (D.n.). Web. <http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/166>.

3] The main purpose of the following website is to teach the children how to better recognize a person with pedophilic characteristics. It is sometimes a challenge to identify a dangerous person because they often know very well how to manipulate children.

"How to Identify a Pedophile". wiki How to do anything. Edited by Megrose123, Davjohn, Teresa, Carolyn Barratt and 18 others. (D. n.) Web. <http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-a-Pedophile>.

What the Experts Say I

The following academic article from Harvard medical school is worth reading because it describes deeper meaning of the pedophilia, including its categories, available treatments, and some shocking statistics and facts that give deeper understanding of this disturbing disorder.

The article analyzes the problem and proposes potential solutions to decrease the harm caused by pedophilia. These solutions should be considered seriously to decrease the danger presented by these monsters in our society. It is challenging to determine the number of victims, because most of the cases are not even reported.

An interesting fact claimed by the article is that most of the instances are children abused by someone previously known, such as a relative, family friend, etc. 

References:

"Pessimism about Pedophilia". Harvard Mental Health Letter. Jul 2010. Web. <http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Mental_Health_Letter/2010/July/pessimism-about-pedophilia>.

Pedophiles vs. Social media

Use of social media can certainly provide many opportunities for staying informed, developing a career, maintaining connections with friends from different parts of the world, etc. On the other hand, we should pay more attention to the disadvantages of social media, which, along with its benefits, carries a huge amount of risk.

I would like to analyze the negative effects of Internet use on children. My main focus is the misuse of the Internet by pedophiles and their attempts to engage with children in inappropriate sexual discussion and to locate children to abuse.

Why? Children are especially vulnerable to becoming victims of such predators. The solution is not to keep children away from the Internet but to protect them somehow from the dangers on the Internet. The Internet is a world that can serve positive educational, informative and entertainment purposes, so it would be quite impossible to prohibit children from accessing the Internet. Nowadays, the use of the Internet by children is necessary, at least for school needs.

It is impossible to completely eliminate this abuse of the Internet by those who would harm children, but there are many ways we can increase protection for children.

Internet Predators & Pedophiles Chat in Hebrew Too. Digital image. Once More With HEART. 5 Feb. 2010. Web. 12 May 2014.

Current Event II

Hey, Little Girl Are Your Parents Home?
Digital image. Quickmeme. Web. 12 May 2014.

There is an interesting article in Fox News about how pedophiles are using Facebook to connect with each other, share pornographic media, and work together to find and exploit victims:

One of the scariest things about this is that these people are in plain sight on Facebook, even though Facebook has strict rules against abuse of children. There are many Facebook groups (more than 87, according to the article) that are devoted to promoting pedophilia. Many of the members of these Facebook groups are members of or support the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA)  (www.nambla.org), which is a well-known and very controversial organization that supports pedophilia. There are a lot of postings that refer to the group’s website. There are even many photos of very young children. While the pictures on Facebook are not pornographic, it is disturbing to think of what these people are doing with these little kids.

Facebook and other social media provide an easy way for pedophiles and sexual predators to meet one another and exchange information. They even provide helpful advice to pedophiles that want to talk to children online. Once they trust each other, members of these groups can share illegal child pornography through a private communication service like Skype or Viber. There is little risk of being caught. Worse, they can assist each other in tricking children and gaining their trust in order to entice them into dangerous situations.

It seems that the technology we’ve developed to help people connect with friends and loved ones can also be used for more evil purposes. Is there anything that can be done about this without infringing on people’s freedom of speech and right to disagree? It seems to me that if those who would abuse innocent children can use technology to help with their harmful goals, then the good people who want to protect those children should be able to use that same technology to identify and expose those people to the light of day. As the saying goes, “sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

References

            Winter, Jana. (September 28, 2010). "Pedophiles Find a Home for Social Networking—On Facebook". Fox News. Web. <http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2010/09/28/pedophiles-find-home-social-networking-facebook/>.

Wortley, Richard & Stephen Smallbone. "The Problem of Internet Child Pornography". Center for Problem-Oriented Policing. Guide No.41 (2006). Web. <http://www.popcenter.org/problems/child_pornography/print/>.

                Delaney, Bill. “Pedophilia a Growing Problem Throughout Europe“. CNN Interactive. 26 August, 1996. Web.  < http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9608/26/german.pedophile/>.

Current Events I

"Years ago, I had the illusion I could do something to stop it," he said. "Now I know it can't be stopped."

A confessed pedophile. Digital image. 
CNN. Cable News Network, 26 Aug. 1996. Web. 12 May 2014.

-- A confessed pedophile

Many sexual offenders are aware that the chance of being caught is relatively small. They can easily hide behind the mask of anonymity that the Internet provides. They interact with children anonymously over the computer and express their secret desires. They use many ways to communicate with children. Their aim is to arouse trust in young victims and hide their real identity behind, for example, false ages and genders.

I highly recommend my readers to see the posted YouTube video as an example of Skype communication between a pedophile and an underage girl. He hides his real identity behind the screen. He pretends that he works for Disney channel and suggests to the young girl that she could become a famous star with his help. His aim is to create a positive impression that he could change her life and enable her to achieve her dreams. His strategy in making such promises is to make he underage person more open and vulnerable, to satisfy their own inappropriate desires.

Fortunately, in this case, the young girl realizes that he is a pedophile based on their perverse conversation, but there are still many children who can become victims of sexual predators that are skilled at manipulating young people. There should definitely be more development of strategies to prevent children from falling prey to negative influences. If the chances of being caught were higher, there would definitely be fewer offenders on the Internet. 

References:

Delaney, Bill. “Pedophilia a Growing Problem Throughout Europe“. CNN Interactive. 26 August, 1996. Web.  < http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9608/26/german.pedophile/>

Jackson, Jordan. 15 April, 2011. Web. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbARlK8aPb0>.