Re: Net and photos, names, etc.
Michael Bowman (mfbowman@USSCOUTS.ORG)
Mon, 28 Dec 1998 23:25:45 -0500
Let me add to Robert Haar's excellent points, that as leaders, we need to
understand the "customer reaction" to new ideas with new technologies in
addition to making an accurate and reasonable risk assessment. Further once
we understand the range of reactions, we need to do a bit of communication
to find out what will work in our own situations - it is going to be
different depending on where you live; the knowledge, fears, and worries of
your parents; and what has been highlighted in the media.
Over the holidays I had a chance to talk with loads of folks at various
parties and gatherings (which is by no means a valid statistical sampling,
but surely good enough for thinking) and inevitably people wanted to talk
about the Internet and their feelings as soon as they found out that I work
both as a lawyer and an IT professional.
Out of the hundred or so people that I chatted with at these various
gatherings, I'd guess that 75% of them had fears and concerns about the
Internet ranging from reasonable worries about hacker threats to their
computers at work to absolute hysterical conviction that the Internet was a
harbinger of the fall of civilization (and as a result would not buy a home
computer). Most were frank in saying that they really didn't understand how
all this stuff worked (I'm not sure I do either) and that it bothered them
that with computers they felt like their safety zone was being squeezed.
Probably about 10% were fairly comfortable with the net and not too very
much worried about anything to do with it.
I say all of this by way of pointing out that whether reasonable or not that
a lot of folks have varying degrees of fear/comfort when it comes to using
computers in general and when it comes to the Internet specifically. This
probably is not unlike the families that we all deal with when it comes to a
unit that is starting to use computers or the Internet to advance its
programs.
Why the fear and concerns? Wish I had good statistics to put on a show, but
in lieu of that I'll just throw out some thoughts for what they are worth.
I think that we all share some fears/concerns with anything that we don't
fully understand and sometimes more so when it is new or different. Ask any
child whose family has just moved to a new town how they feel and you'll
hear some worries. It is just normal. I tend to think that sometimes we
also react to things that get our attention because of emotional impact.
Things that are new and scarey to begin with have more potential to cause
worry when something goes really wrong and a story makes the news. I
remember a news story from not to long ago that really got a lot of play
about a stalker that used the net to lure the victim to her death. The
story was indeed tragic and scarey, but not nearly as scarey as the dozens
of cases of stalking and threats that were ongoing in the same community at
the same time all without benefit of any technology. In one of those other
cases I had reason to work with law enforcement folks because the victim was
a friend of mine. What I learned from the pros in law enforcement was that
there were a lot of stalking cases in our area, that in many cases the
victim's life was absolutely disrupted in order to escape the threat and
that in too many cases the stalker injured or killed the victim. Yet none
of these other cases got much play, if any in the news or public mind. The
one case that got focus was the one that involved computers and chat rooms.
Why? Because it had the appeal of being more novel or unusual and that sold.
Result, more folks worried about stalkers in chat rooms than worried about
the ones on the loose in their own communities.
Similarly, you hear about deviates on the net a lot more than the ones in
your neighborhood. It seems scarier and makes the news quicker. But the
dangers from supposedly safe people (friends and acquaintances) can get a
lot scarier in a hurry, when your own child is involved as has been the case
for a few people that I know. Fortunately for the children those cases
didn't make the news, but in these cases each was confronted with a person
that should have been a friend, coach, leader type whose agenda was
molestation. We worry about what we hear is a threat or understand is a
threat and sometimes our assessment, as Robert suggested, is not to
accurate. The real danger sometimes lurks all too close and yet is not the
one we identify.
Now don't get me wrong, I would be the first to agree that these are
dangerous and real threats. However, this is where I like what Robert had
to say about risk analysis. We have to understand in a less emotion laden
atmosphere what the real risks are. At the same time we have to realize
that the families we work with may have a whole variety of feelings on the
issue. Before going to far it makes a lot of sense to talk with the parents
via the unit committee to know what their concerns are and to also talk a
little about what the real risks are, what can be done to mitigate risks,
and how to proceed. The answers and resulting agreements will vary and may
not be perfection, but are likely to result in a lot more satisified
"customers" in the long run.
In these discussions with parents it may be a good idea to emphasis some of
the points that Bruce Cobern was making about teaching Scouts the basics of
handling threat situations whether at home, in school, in the neighborhood,
or on the Internet. I think that if parents are confident that their
children will know how to react to minimize risk, their comfort factor may
go up a little.
Seems to me that the bottom-line is that we want our kids to be safe and to
reduce the chance that something will go wrong and harm them. Maybe before
getting too far down the road in a contentious discussion about names,
photos, etc. on the net, it might be good to stop and take some time on
prevention training . . . and maybe after that some one-to-one stuff with
parents about what you are planning to do on the Internet. With
communication and understanding, some of the less grounded fears may be
abated and you can move ahead with a better risk assessment to guide you in
what you do.
Mike
Mike Bowman a/k/a Professor Beaver (mfbowman@usscouts.org)
Webmastering in the Scouting Spirit from Alexandria, VA
http://usscouts.org http://members.aol.com/netcommish/
http://members.tripod.com/colonialdistrict
