Trashy reporting from the Sunday Star Times
Reading todays Sunday Star Times front page headline “Kidnap Fears: Mum’s Warning over Bebo” it would be fair to assume there was some connection between the disappearance of teenager Marie Davis and the fact she had a Bebo page.
After reading the article it seems that in the mothers opinion “Bebo is not a good idea” and may be “a bit out of hand”.
No one draws any connection between contacts on Bebo that may be implicated in the situation.
It must be horrible to be the parent of a missing child. But that the Sunday Star Times would choose this mothers random and unqualified assertions about internet social networking as its main weekend headline is very disappointing.
The last two weekends I have been pleasantly surprised upon picking through the SST. Generally reading any major NZ newspaper leaves me with an unpleasantly knotted stomach and a sinking sense of the general quality of public opinion in this country.
To my amazement there had been no printed letters proclaiming the deportation of a particular race as the first step to solving “problems” in New Zealand, no beneficiary bashing and the associated low flying sense of self righteousness, and a distinct shortage of pointlessly hysterical headlines.
Stories like this do not serve to improve relationships between parents and children, they just add space to the generation gap.
Bebo and other social networking sites make a lot of the interactions of teenagers and young people more visible and traceable in the wake of a crisis. It doesn’t mean that what goes on between them has only been terrifying for parents since advent of the internet.
If a paper is going to proclaim something like this could they at least explain what they think the danger is, or at least make a small effort to point out the connection and cause for alarm?
It is easy to control who views your Bebo or Facebook page and the networks generally reflect extensions of existing personal social relationships. It doesn’t take much intelligence or education to know that you should be skeptical about dodgy messages from unsolicited contacts.
If parents turn around and irrationally try to ban their kids from using Bebo etc all they are going to get is fights and further alienation.
How about a small effort on their part to understand the technology, and extend that to a discussion of sensible behavior on the internet?
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