Its the Internet, Part II
Here we go again. A "high ranking" employee of the Department of Homeland Security was arrested for propositioning an alleged minor over the internet. Once again there is an uproar.... in the wrong direction.
Ok, lets face it...that guy is a moron. He's totally wrong. BUT...
So are:
a) The law enforcement agency that LIES to pose as a minor on the internet. That is entrapment, folks. Why do the law enforcement agencies of America think that breaking the law themselves or being deceptive in order to capture a "dangerous criminal" is ok? Are our law enforcement agencies THAT unethical?!? What ever happened to good police work?
(And just an aside: This would have never made the papers if that guy didn't work for the Department of Homeland Security. It seems to me that maybe this is really a case of one agency trying to zap another one, but I could be wrong. )
b) Where are the parents in all this??? Actually, I know the answer to this question. They are either not involved in the lives of their kids, or they trust their kids (who turn around and violate that trust).
c) Part of the fault HAS to lie with the kids themselves. I got news for everyone: no one can force anyone to take their clothes off on a web cam. If a kid takes off his/her clothes on their web cam, its their own decision. They can say no. They can close the chat box window. They can hit the computer's "off" switch. No one can force you to do anything like that from a distance, especially when you have so many "run away" options. This directly relates to my previous post. Kids are NOT innocent bystanders who are seduced by perverted adults. In many cases, they are worse than the adults, and appear to be seducers themselves. (No hard science on this, just based on my experience reading Yahoo, MSN and MySpace profiles.) Predators are out there, but the kid has to say yes first. Unless we are willing to say that kids today are SO STUPID that they do not realize that they can end a conversation or are SO STUPID that they cannot turn off their computer, then they have a responsibility in the whole situation.
I put out the real problem in my previous post. Until we tackle the problem of our sex soaked society, we will continue to see stories like this. To paraphrase the immortal words of Pogo, "We have seen the enemy, and they are us."
Ok, lets face it...that guy is a moron. He's totally wrong. BUT...
So are:
a) The law enforcement agency that LIES to pose as a minor on the internet. That is entrapment, folks. Why do the law enforcement agencies of America think that breaking the law themselves or being deceptive in order to capture a "dangerous criminal" is ok? Are our law enforcement agencies THAT unethical?!? What ever happened to good police work?
(And just an aside: This would have never made the papers if that guy didn't work for the Department of Homeland Security. It seems to me that maybe this is really a case of one agency trying to zap another one, but I could be wrong. )
b) Where are the parents in all this??? Actually, I know the answer to this question. They are either not involved in the lives of their kids, or they trust their kids (who turn around and violate that trust).
c) Part of the fault HAS to lie with the kids themselves. I got news for everyone: no one can force anyone to take their clothes off on a web cam. If a kid takes off his/her clothes on their web cam, its their own decision. They can say no. They can close the chat box window. They can hit the computer's "off" switch. No one can force you to do anything like that from a distance, especially when you have so many "run away" options. This directly relates to my previous post. Kids are NOT innocent bystanders who are seduced by perverted adults. In many cases, they are worse than the adults, and appear to be seducers themselves. (No hard science on this, just based on my experience reading Yahoo, MSN and MySpace profiles.) Predators are out there, but the kid has to say yes first. Unless we are willing to say that kids today are SO STUPID that they do not realize that they can end a conversation or are SO STUPID that they cannot turn off their computer, then they have a responsibility in the whole situation.
I put out the real problem in my previous post. Until we tackle the problem of our sex soaked society, we will continue to see stories like this. To paraphrase the immortal words of Pogo, "We have seen the enemy, and they are us."
posted by Rock'n'Roll Kid at 6:15 AM
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