Worlds Collide

It’s going to be interesting to see how intervention by US lawyer makers and public-do-gooder groups in the operation of MySpace will affect the social networking environment.

If you have not been tracking what happening, here is a brief summation. There are bad people in the world who are intent on revelling in their evil ways. Ok, so you know this right? Well recently much media attention has been given to the potential (and illustrated) opportunities for ‘predators’ and online pornographers to take advantage of social networks, like MySpace, and exploit the young audience that they attract.

This is a clear and present danger in the online environment and I believe every online organisation has a social duty to protect their users and prevent people abusing their tools, whether it is spammers, malware creators, or sexual deviants.

But the approach to this social issue is, yet again, what I would consider a Band-Aid solution to a problem which is actually systemic of a wider issue facing humanity not just western internet users.

(Yes, the appropriative government bodies/agencies should be involved to ensure that standardisation of regulation endeavours by social networking providers are achieved. But no, new and exhaustive laws are not the answers to prevent malefactors from using site for sinister aims.)

Much the same as with gun use, laws curb problems but don’t stop them. Even though gun laws in the US have become stricter, they still have unparallel violent crimes rates involving firearms and handguns.

The issue here as with potential Internet anti-paedophile laws is that society must change in order for people to be safe. The type of people who make children and teenagers their victims will have no hesitation in developing ways to circumvent any legal restrictions emplaced on the social networking environment.

Switzerland have what can only be described as ‘open’ laws around gun ownership; a country where carrying firearms in the open is common place, yet the has very low crime rates let-alone ones where firearms are used. The United Kingdom on the other had has progressively increase its restrictions on firearms and handguns yet violent crimes committed with guns is increasing.

My point is that legislation around what online organisation (particularly social networks and search engines like Google) must do to remove the threat of paedophiles and other sexual predators will not change the very fact that these people exist in our society.

The US laws will make it a harder for them to gain access to potential victims. The laws will inevitability have global consequences on they way aspects of the web environment is run, but there is no evidence that they will correlate to there being less people living in our communities with depraved agendas waiting for the right opportunity.

This is an issue that nations must confront on a broader level than the mechanism where people interact like the Internet. We must find solutions that redeem humanity if we want the world to be a safe place for children to grow up in and become adults who make positive contributions to society.