Internet and Pedeophiles

My mum's always going on about that sort of stuff. She seems convinced that practically every person on the internet is a paedophile in disguise and if you ever mention your surname, said paedophiles will turn up at your house and rape you.

I'm old enough to remember the infamous Brass Eye episode "paedogeddon" which was a very biting (and funny) critique of how the news media had become salacious peddlers of hyped up child abuse and child pornography stories.

ITV like to pick relatively minor issues like paedophilia and inflate them into some kind of 'national crisis' or something. They need to get a grip. I actually cringe every time I see ITV news and their ridiculous stories.

Awareness is one thing, but ITV seem to make everyone hysterical with sensationalist stories backed up by dubious research and reporting techniques. And what was the deal with facebook? I can't believe they picked it out! Its one of the most restrictive sites on the web, and its hardly marketed towards little kiddies. Its populated overwhelmingly by students and adults, and it has a very friendly interface for handling security settings. ITV just gets worse by the year- no wonder their ratings are continuing to decline.

I think it was faceparty, not facebook [unless they're related]. But I agree with Beekeeper.

Nope, they were definatly going on about facebook because it showed the front of the website in one of the programmes

The MSN thing annoyed me too, although I think people can talk to you without you adding them. Someone posted a stupid message to me the other week without a request coming up for them to add me, but I automatically blocked them. This was a very rare occurance though!
Instead of scaring people, they should give tips about safe internet browsing such as blocking people who you don't know, setting your facebook/bebo/myspace profile to private so only you and those you know can see what you've put and never arrange to meet someone you have only just started chatting to, and even if you have been chatting for a long time, if kids or teens want to meet with them, bring a responsible adult with them.

btw, is that PW Botha in your avatar? looks like him

If you have kids then, statistically at least, you need to worry about motor cars far more than child abusers; being knocked down and killed or seriously injured is a much more likely tragedy in your child's life.

It's all about the expected cost, though. It is true that children are at more risk of being injured on the roads, but the fact is that given the choice, most parents would much rather their kid got knocked down by a car and broke a couple of bones (no serious lasting damage, an increased waryness of the roads) than got abused (lifelong humiliation, psychological scarring, problems with trust and relationships etc.)

I think scaremongering is partly a good idea, as it teaches people what to look out for and the potential danger. It's the same as those "don't walk on the tracks" posters you see at train stations. Or drink driving adverts, which can sometimes be quite graphic. Though of course you're right, it's going far too far. I've met people off the internet before and will continue to do so, and thus far I'm paedophile-free. The same happened with WTC, the London bombings, Holly and Jessica, Maddy McCann... it'll never stop.

One problem is that the ITV staff have bugger all clue about the internet, just as parents do.

I dont agree with you meeting people from the internet though, although im guessing your smart enough to know if you can trust em, even in a public place - never meet anyone mate.