Save the teenagers from the evil inventions

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Save the teenagers from the evil inventions

"Hi! What did you do last night?"

"Oh I talked to someone whom I've never met before. He's so cool I've

got to meet him!"

"Wow!"

This might not make sense to you but it is a conversation you might

hear in a teenage community. It is a lot different from those days

when everyone used to read books, and a terrible problem has been

recognised due to the adult's ignorance.

The fast developing computing systems have enabled us to carry out

many tasks - easier research, word processing, shopping from home…

etc., and amongst them is 'easier communication'. For older

generations, it probably means an easier way to keep in touch with

their old friends or as a mean of exchanging information and ideas.

This was probably the main intentions of ISOC (Internet Society), the

current internet director. Despite this, by the age of about 15, most

children are so sophisticated in their internet use and that they are

curious and adventurous, anxious to be independent and sometimes

rebellious.

For these reasons, many people, especially the teenagers, are using

'chat rooms' on the internet - where they can talk to people they

don't know online. It is now the third most popular way of using the

web. The advantage is that the person you are talking to doesn't know

who you are. Many people who are less confident in speaking in front

of the others find that it is easier to start building their

confidence by talking to someone without looking at his/her face, and

has been a great help for some.

The disadvantage is that it equally means that you do not know who you

are talking to. Children could be easily exploited or victimised. They

may not be someone who they claim to be and you could be giving your

personal details to a complete stranger, and arranging to meet him/her

is even worse. You could be involved in tragedies such as rape,

kidnapping and even murder, as many cases show.

31% of the criminal and civil complaints reported to the police

internationally in 2003 were internet related, in which children

related was the seventh most common and that of chat room abuse was

the 10th.

Although some companies, charities and organisations, such as MSN

which has closed all its chat rooms recently, are trying to prevent

these crimes, it is impossible to ban this system entirely because

many important enterprise companies know that they could be after a

lot of money from these young people through advertisements. Even if

the chat rooms do become illegal, there are the darker sides of the

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