h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Likewise, the social networking sites can lose participants -- not that the billionaires who own/run some of them would even notice. I read recently that Fb has been losing young people lately, even as older people have been using it to get in touch with old friends they haven't seen in many years.

Maybe the hip, trendy youngsters wouldn't be caught dead hanging out in a place where older people meet. Or maybe something else, something newer and more cutting edge has siphoned them away. That's what the world is like. There's always a neighbor's grass that looks greener than your own.

Advertisers abandon ask.fm following recent trolling/suicides:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23612544

Something the h2g2 owners should have in their risk register...

Hmmmm. I thought trolling was frowned on here. As for suicides, I doubt that this site has been mentioned in connection with even one....

In yesterday's "Get Fuzzy" comic strip, Rob Wilco was wearing a T-shirt that had "H2G@' on the front, and "42" on the back. It would be an honor if he were among us. I love that strip!

I'm saying it's parents responsibility to forewarn,oversee and take action over grooming and bullying.The child cannot be at fault because they are a child.Just leaving a child alone with a TV,smartphone,computer is not parenting.It's letting technology be baby sitter.

However I certainly don't expect the government to take on the responsibilities that should be those of parents.I'm just asking that parents should be parents.

How about mentors? For whatever reason, sometimes an older person -- who is not a parent but still someone trustworthy -- takes an interest in children and steers them in the right direction. It might be an older sibling or a caring teacher or just a friend.

Incog, at what age do think parents should not monitor everything their children do the internet?

To my mind, a parent should monitor their child's internet use until the child leaves home. And yes, that means beyond the age of 18. If you're in my house, using my electricity, my internet connection, my central heating, etc., that means I get to monitor and control your internet use. And if you don't like that, you know where the door is...

Put another way - since I'm paying the bill, I'm responsible for everything that happens via my internet connection. And since I have the responsibility for it, I have authority over it. Anyone having problems submitting to that authority is free to take responsibility for their own internet access.

>>To my mind, a parent should monitor their child's internet use until the child leaves home<<

At what point does the child develop independence? To my mind (speaking as a non-parent) the primary job of a parent is to raise a person who can look after themselves and who doesn't need to be monitored at every stage. Certainly with older young people you'd be on a hiding to nothing if you tried to watch them at every turn.

Parents shouldn't be expected to watch their kids at all times, that would just be soul-destroying for all parties, but they should teach their kids how to stay out of trouble. At 16 these kids have every right to go out into the world on their own with no supervision and you'll want to teach them how to cope. As I've said, this is harder for current parents and social media because it is genuinely revolutionary, but most parents I know know more about social media than I do because they have to.

"At what point does the child develop independence?"

Sorites paradox again. There's no "point", it's a continuum.

There is, however, a definite point at which I no longer need to monitor what they're doing with my internet connection, and that's the point at which they stop using my internet connection and start using their own or someone else's. Simple enough. When they're personally financially and legally responsible for what goes through the internet connection they're using, they're welcome to use it for whatever they like. While they're using a connection for which I am financially and legally responsible, they will tolerate monitoring. This doesn't apply just to children, but to any adult using my internet connection.

Or do you allow unsecured access to your wifi for any passing yahoo/paedo who cares to click "Connect"?

"At 16 these kids have every right to go out into the world on their own with no supervision "

Absolutely. And I invite, nay, encourage them to do so.

>>While they're using a connection for which I am financially and legally responsible, they will tolerate monitoring.<<

Good luck with that. To monitor your (hypothetical, yes?) kids at every second you're going to have to abandon any hope of having a life yourself and you're going to have open warfare in your home for years.

Let me introduce you to the idea of trust. Trust is a lovely thing: it means you can have confidence in people not to do stupid things that might affect you. Whilst of course my internet is protected (red herring), my guests have full, private access to it because I can trust them.

I never said I was going to monitor them every second. However, I *could* be monitoring them at *any* second. That's all I need. It's like a speed camera - you don't know if there's a camera in that box at the side of the road, but you slow down just in case.

Let me introduce you, in turn, to the idea of knowing what someone's like. If the person you're dealing with is someone who lies, and lies, and lies, even about the most trivial things, even when they know they'll get caught, if their dishonesty on all levels is one of their basic, defining character traits, one of the first things you'd warn anyone coming into contact with them about - why would you trust them?

Why would you assume all/most kids are like that? Some are undoubtedly but most of them aren't.

"Why would you assume all/most kids are like that?"

Experience.

Aww - I'm sorry for your unlucky experiences with kids.

"While they're using a connection for which I am financially and legally responsible, they will tolerate monitoring. This doesn't apply just to children, but to any adult using my internet connection" [Hoovooloo]

If "any adult" includes your wife or significant other, that could mean trouble. Different countries have different concepts of privacy, but I would imagine that wives/girlfriends have a right to privacy in most of them. Not that they couldn't have accounts of their own, for which they pay, but I'm just raising the point. I know a married couple who have a joint Internet account. If they're having privacy issues with it, they haven't mentioned it to me.

Well, I seem to be the only parent on the planet that refuses to let their children join Facebook until they reach the required age of 13

Sic, who was desperate to be on FB, hardly uses it now, mainly because of an almighty on-line disagreement with her then best friend. She tweets. And blocks anybody that trolls her.

As that option is open to Twitter users I don't think threats are a problem unless the Twitter target's real life contact details are findable on the internet. But that *is* an issue for many Twitter users. Some people simply aren't very careful about preserving their on-line anonymity, but election candidates (who then become MPs) *have* to provide an address with their nomination (which is then available on-line). And many people using Twitter are doing so for publicity, just using one of the communication tools available to businesses and professionals nowadays. So some people cannot simply walk away, and they may well be findable in real life. That makes an on-line threat more than just a string of unpleasant words typed by some blockable nutter.

I also think there's a long-term benefit in coming down like a ton of bricks on such incidents *now*, because it sends a clear message to those growing up with the internet. We parents do our best, but funnily enough our kids don't always pay a great deal of attention to what we tell them. Sometimes it takes something from the outside to make the point, sometimes we have to watch and sigh and let them learn for themselves. I still remember with great satisfaction the day the radiator *did* fall off the wall when a child was climbing on it ... the mopping up was hard work, but it made the point far more effectively than our repeated warnings had done, and word soon got out to other households.

Mol

"
"Why would you assume all/most kids are like that?"

Experience."

Bloody hellfire. First women, now children. Do you ever even *attempt* to think outside your clearly very narrow life experiences?

what Mol said.

just a wee pedantic point, <> No, they can put an address of c/o the constituency office or the Town Hall. At least in Scotland they can.

Hoo is in many ways a deeply boring person, to be honest.

TRiG.