NPR had a story yesterday about online safety education. I take note with a few of the comments from some of the people interviewed, and in particular this one from Gene Fishel, an assistant Virginia attorney general.
"MySpace is a breeding ground for these sexual predators."
Wrong. The breeding ground is really the broken-down family relationships, the lack of parental involvement in a child’s life, and other problems that get to the root of why some children take the extra step to go offline to meet people that they generally know are older and sexually interested. That’s why education is so important, and why Virginia should be commended for requiring Internet safety training in the classroom.
-Braden