Whenever I see articles like this one that talk about how yet more child predators were caught on MySpace, I just have to sigh. Yes, it's a good thing that bad guys got caught. And yes, it's cool that in a mere 1000 lines of code, it's possible to search through MySpace in a way that even MySpace claimed it couldn't do.
But, I just have to think of the parents who see this, and think, "Aha! I need to make sure my kid isn't on this cesspool of a website!" When in reality, MySpace is like any other technology, it can be used for good or evil. And plenty of kids are using it for good (or, well, at least not for evil).
Parents (and teachers, and other people who are convinced that MySpace is the devil), should check out a book like this one. It makes it clear - you can use MySpace in a positive way, and before you condem it, you should understand it. Or better yet, dont' just understand it, use it.
Why do I care about this? I just hate it when technology gets branded as evil. That's taking the easy way out. We've seen this type of argument play out with video games and other aspects of computers. C'mon, see the technology for what it is, and find a way to use it for good.
No comments:
Post a Comment