Anonymous in MyPlace
From teens to GenX'ers, people flock to MyPlace today as the hot meeting space on the web. Everyone's talking about it. It's reached such a boiling point that Playboy's picked up on it. Even Jon Stewart fired off his usual satire over MyPlace on his Daily Show.
You know you've hit big time when you've got Playboy and The Daily show's attention.
On MyPlace, you can tell others about yourself and make new "friends." You can tell the truth or hide behind a fictitious persona. Heck, you can even put up someone else's photo and say it's you - even if it's someone of the opposite sex and twenty years younger.
It can even be fun and amusing for some folks to act out different personae online. It's IRC and online chat rooms replayed in 2006.
There you are, talking to other people around the world, and exchanging photos with hundreds... maybe thousands of newfound "friends." Friends you don't know for real, but what does it matter? No one's checking. Harmless. Yes?
Not exactly. Not when anonymous sex predators lurk in the darker corners of cyberspace... looking for easy targets among kids and teens.
My 11-year old niece Sonia goes online occasionally, and I shudder to think of some strangers she might meet.
I'd do everything I can to keep someone like a thirty year old sex pervert hiding behind a facade from luring her deeper into his world.
Off-line, some cities keep track of convicted child molesters in the general population. The molesters don't get to disappear into the crowd.
Online, some people do things they wouldn't do in person.
Although anonymity can be good, it has drawbacks too. Anonymity opposes accountability, which legal identity serves to preserve.
Without accountability, more people would commit crimes if they knew they won't get caught.
In a nuteshell, it's best to know how to balance anonymity and accountability when you need to protect your interests. Anonymity and accountability can work for and against you.
You know you've hit big time when you've got Playboy and The Daily show's attention.
On MyPlace, you can tell others about yourself and make new "friends." You can tell the truth or hide behind a fictitious persona. Heck, you can even put up someone else's photo and say it's you - even if it's someone of the opposite sex and twenty years younger.
It can even be fun and amusing for some folks to act out different personae online. It's IRC and online chat rooms replayed in 2006.
There you are, talking to other people around the world, and exchanging photos with hundreds... maybe thousands of newfound "friends." Friends you don't know for real, but what does it matter? No one's checking. Harmless. Yes?
Not exactly. Not when anonymous sex predators lurk in the darker corners of cyberspace... looking for easy targets among kids and teens.
My 11-year old niece Sonia goes online occasionally, and I shudder to think of some strangers she might meet.
I'd do everything I can to keep someone like a thirty year old sex pervert hiding behind a facade from luring her deeper into his world.
Off-line, some cities keep track of convicted child molesters in the general population. The molesters don't get to disappear into the crowd.
Online, some people do things they wouldn't do in person.
Although anonymity can be good, it has drawbacks too. Anonymity opposes accountability, which legal identity serves to preserve.
Without accountability, more people would commit crimes if they knew they won't get caught.
In a nuteshell, it's best to know how to balance anonymity and accountability when you need to protect your interests. Anonymity and accountability can work for and against you.
posted by Henry at 12:47 AM
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