Policing chatrooms

[Adder]

I've finnaly stoped being able to just sit back and think about this, so I've decided to use some forum space to air my views. Today's topic:

"Policing chat-rooms"

Recently talk of peodophils and porn have led some groups to lobby for the government to physicaly patrol, monitor and police chatrooms on the internet.
Does anyone else think this is a bad idea?

Lets look at the facts:

1. Most of this was hightened after a 12 year old girl was about to go out and meet a 40 year old peodophile.
(2. The girl's parents had been trying to cut here back to 4 hours a day on the internet. Am I the only one who thinks that, in this situation, communication in the house and overuse may have been the problem?)

3. People think it's a new thing for people in chatrooms to be lying about there age/sex/loction. DUH!!
By 2010, a certain gameing magazine estimates only 10% of women on-line gamers will be women!

4. The internet, and especialy forums and chatrooms, are (in my view) about sharing ideas and airing views. Monitoring and censoring, or prosecution, someone over there thoughts should, in my view, not take place.

41/2. PM's should never be viewed by anyone other than the sender and collector. It's the whole point of it being private. Possible moderators should be able to peek at them, but should be responsible about it.

5. In order to monitor every chat-room you would need to check them at least ever 2 hours and stay for 15 minutes. Now, Yahoo! alone has over 100 chat-rooms. Add in TeenChat, um...Oddchat, bjork.com/telegraph/chat . See the problem?

6. Which country has the right to censor/prosecute another?


Well, that's my current thoughts. Anyone else like to comment?

[Fez]

your making alot of sence, but chatrooms are suppose to be a place for teenagers only, i wouldnt want to be monitered every time i go on odchat.

[LuLu_Fund]

I think that this is a very difficult subject. I personally think that parents should be responsible for taking the time to know about the internet generally, and should be responsible for limiting the amount of time their children spends time on both chat and the internet. Knowing that your child is on for 6 hours a day or even not knowing is something you should be worried about; it's like knowing or not knowing you child is out on their own from dusk 'til dawn. It would be seen as the parents' responsibility to make sure their children are safe at home, as well as make sure their children are safe WITHIN the home. If you limit how long they're on for, they can't build too much of a relationship with these people, although it still would be possible.

I kinda agree with what you said about policing, I personally wouldn't like them looking at what I'm typing to someone else. If there was some kind of pattern that they can try to look into that these paedophiles do... maybe they can use a certain strategy of monitoring rather than monitoring everything unnecessarily, invading other people's privacy at the same time. It's like recording everyone's conversations in the home or in the streets... it's not right.

It's a really difficult task to police people who are anonymous. They need to research more I think.

[Jacob]

The net is only being policed because you have the Geek children who have been picked on in school and in real life meeting up with people who want them...I.E - Paedophiles. Anyway, as much as i hate them i do use them for money purposes, i am currently awaiting £20 off one...then if he gives me his address i'll tell the police about him...anonymously of course...

[MrBoj]

the sad part is, monitering needs to take place in order to prevent abductions. Yes, of course, the parents shoudl be on top of what their child is looking at, doing. If the parents are dragging the child away from the computer kicking and screaming, then she has some serious psychological issues.

However, as much as censorship is wrong, monitering is needed in order to prevent abductions. As much as I hate it that I am being watched, would you rather them look at your conversation withb your friend about that hot co-worker you like, or have a child abducted because she felt lonely. It's a tough arguement, but things like this happen too often, AS THE INTERNET IS BEING TAKEN FOR GRANTED AND NOT POLICED PROPERLY. Your identity can be stolen on the net. This is why I don't use credit cards or hardly shop online.

Someone needs to step in and create/reform the net laws.

[paramiteabe]

Nothing will work no matter how much the Governments police the chatrooms of the internet. And believe me the Governments have no control over the internet. When it comes to security its just going to have to be a common sense type of decision. I mean its your own decision on wether you want to risk yourself through chatrooms and such. Entering the internet is like parking your car in New York City with the doors unlocked and the keys in the ignition. Parents should take that into consideration when their kids enter these chatrooms. However a 24 hour monitaring system would be efficiant in keeping children safe by alarming officials. I mean there won't be sombody behind monitering but only some kind of trigger system going off when something bad is occuring which would alert police. This would provide the privacy. but I don't think the Governments will invest into such a thing and besides it still wouldn't work because people will always find a way around it.

It basically should be put into the common sense of the parent in my opinion. If they don't see the danger then they are altimatically at fault at not proventing their child of danger in the use of the net in this case.

[Alcar]

Originally posted by Jacob
The net is only being policed because you have the Geek children who have been picked on in school and in real life meeting up with people who want them...I.E - Paedophiles. Anyway, as much as i hate them i do use them for money purposes, i am currently awaiting £20 off one...then if he gives me his address i'll tell the police about him...anonymously of course...

Chris, you cease to amaze me with your comments. Not every Geek picked on in School will turn into a Paedophile (etc), some commit suicide.

My thoughts on the subject? If the children get themselves into those predictiments then they are responsible for their actions.

Alcar...

[LuLu_Fund]

I kinda agree with paramiteable... it is near impossible for govt to monitor, it's pretty much the same as monitoring the streets of the world.... difference is it's the web.

Parents should drag their kids off the computer if they've been on there too long.... problems with that should be found out there and then!

I think one of the most effective ways I've heard so far of policing is kinda like what Jacob is doing(except only police should be doing this under close investigation), police posing as children online, chatting with these suspects in these chatrooms. This is quite successful in the true prevention of paedophilia.

Alcar's brought up a valid point about both children and paedophiles:
Police should be (and I'm sure they are hopefully) looking into why and how these paedophiles come to be.... people are shaped into the individuals they become with a reason. If something goes wrong along the way, we should recognise and acknowledge it, and learn to avoid it in the future.

Same with 'geek' and any other type of child who has any problem... we must acknowledge them all.

This issue cries out for people to really take notice and do something about them.

[Jacob]

Not every Geek picked on in School will turn into a Paedophile (etc), some commit suicide.

No...thats not what my point was. My point was that Geeks and socially retarded people in general will turn to Paedophiles for comfort. Especially ugly fat kids. Even if they Paedophile declares he's (or she's) a 57 yr old man, the kid will still be all "I'll meet you" because they want to be accepted. Besides, most of the time the Paedophile who is posing as a 9 yr old boy will most likely always be talking to a Paedophile posing as a 8 yr old girl.

Plus, once you recognise the grooming techniques they use, they're easily avoided.

Joke:
There's a pedophile and a 5 year old girl walking through the woods one night. The little girl says "I don't like these woods, they're very scary" and the pedophile replies with "Just think how I feel, I've got to walk back this way on my own later on"

Joke 2:
A man is walking down an empty beach, when he comes across a five-year old. The little boy is crying, and the man says, "Hey, what's the problem?" The little boy looks up to him, sniffles, and says, "My mommy swam out there, and she started drowning... then, my daddy came to save her, and he was eaten by a shark! Now I don't have any parents!" The boy continues to cry. The man shakes his head, unzips his pants, and says, "Boy, this just isn't your day..."

Joke 3:
Q: How does a priest know a Nun is on her period?
A: He can taste it on the alter boy!

[Adder]

Originally posted by LuLu_Fund
I personally think that parents should be responsible for taking the time to know about the internet generally, and should be responsible for limiting the amount of time their children spends time on both chat and the internet...

I agree.
PARENTS should be responsible, not the government!

Oh by the way, I never got an E-mail telling me I've got 7 replies! What's up with that! And yes, I did tick the box.

[oddguy]

Yes, there's a difference in parents "being" responsible and actually doing it. The reason the government wants to step in is because the parents aren't following through. Not all, but a good portion. I just saw a story on the news that said a women left her two month old child in the car for an hour while she shopped. The poor baby died from the extreme heat in the car.....it was 105 degrees outside! I see stuff like that and think, "How stupid can some people be?!" The parenting standard has really fallen too far. If the parents can't help their kids, then the government has to step in.

[Adder]

Originally posted by oddguy
The reason the government wants to step in is because the parents aren't following through....

No,it'stheotherwayround. Parents arn't controling their kids and they want the government to step in.

Originally posted by oddguy
If the parents can't help their kids, then the government has to step in.

I don't believe the governmnet will be able to police ever chatroom. And also, which government are you talking about? Chatrooms are international and tecnicaly, they don't physicaly exist.

[Facsimile]

And there are chatrooms being made all the time. How will they know where they all are? It can't really be done.

[oddling]

I've come screen-to-screen with a pedophile once. My friend said that this 'girl' just imed him and told him to bring his friends, thus me meeting 'her'. Right away she started to ask all these questions about where I live and stuff. She was all like, "What school do you go to?" "I'm not allowed to tell that" "Aw come on, I go to *school name here* I'm just a kid with no friends that no one likes. Everyone hates me." "Hey, my gramma lives by thats school" "She does? Whats her name?" "Her names, *fake name I made here*" "Oh cool, maybe I know her." This is all I remember of the chat. I was sure the 12 year old girl I was talking to was a 40 year old pedophile. I mean, who would ask what you what your grammas name is?!! I heard once on a discovery channel thing that there's this internet cop that poses as a little girl named Kendra. Five minutes in some chatrooms and 40 year old guys are asking her to meat them. Then when she fools them to think they are meeting a little girl, they get a full fledged adult girl cop and a SWAT team. Pretty cool. So watch out perverts, the chatcop is out to getcha! *batman theme music*

Oddling l:c l

[Facsimile]

That's a nice story but I don't see why they would bring SWAT into it.

[Adder]

Yes, it's a bit extreme to arrest people who are peaodophiles, just because someone was dumb enough to believe everything online.

The parents should be strict with internet access, and not the government as that would be near impossible, or else very expensive.


P.S. Still not rceiveing e-mail to say i've got replies!

[Jacob]

Yes, it's a bit extreme to arrest people who are peaodophiles, just because someone was dumb enough to believe everything online.

They shouldn't be trying to lure children to their dens anyway...so no, its not extreme.