Leave Parenting to the Parents
Livejournal's new flagging system has serious issues, despite their reassurances. The ability to flag other people's journals for content review is still open to abuse, the entire system is based around United States standards for "adult content," and the screening is something people must opt out of (if over 18) and not something parents could opt into on their children's journals. And yet again, the internet has become responsible for setting standards and protecting children above and beyond whatever those children's parents have decided (actively or inactively).
I very strongly believe that information should be freely accessible to all, and that it is the responsibility of parents who wish to restrict their children's access to do so. Not my responsibility. Not the responsibility of libraries. Or bookstores. Or the internet. The responsibility of the parents, and only the parents. If livejournal or any other on-line service wishes to make the internet equivalent to the V-chip available to those parents, that's fine. But it should be up to those parents to opt in to the "V-chip" and only those who do so should be affected by it. Any other arrangement not only interferes with those, like myself, who believe in free information, but stomps on the rights of parents (and/or their children).
Why should livejournal or its other users get to decide whether content is acceptable for someone else's child to view? What gives me the right to decide if my journal is acceptable or unacceptable for someone else's kid? Shouldn't that be the parent's choice? Worse, as it stands, if I leave my journal unrated and some parent somewhere disagrees with me in regard to their child, they can flag my content and, potentially, make a decision for any number of other people's children. (Yes, I know it's supposed to take multiple flaggings, but we have to trust livejournal to differentiate between multiple flaggings by a single other person and assume that no parent would ever get other people to flag a journal just to get it blocked.)
If I wrote a book or posted something to a physical bulletin board, it would be the responsibility of a parent to make sure their child didn't read what I wrote if they had some objection - not mine. I really believe that the same should be true in cyberspace. Sure, it might be more difficult, but hardly impossible. And, as I said, any system that people opt in to is just fine. But I really wish that parental responsibilities would be left up to parents.
I very strongly believe that information should be freely accessible to all, and that it is the responsibility of parents who wish to restrict their children's access to do so. Not my responsibility. Not the responsibility of libraries. Or bookstores. Or the internet. The responsibility of the parents, and only the parents. If livejournal or any other on-line service wishes to make the internet equivalent to the V-chip available to those parents, that's fine. But it should be up to those parents to opt in to the "V-chip" and only those who do so should be affected by it. Any other arrangement not only interferes with those, like myself, who believe in free information, but stomps on the rights of parents (and/or their children).
Why should livejournal or its other users get to decide whether content is acceptable for someone else's child to view? What gives me the right to decide if my journal is acceptable or unacceptable for someone else's kid? Shouldn't that be the parent's choice? Worse, as it stands, if I leave my journal unrated and some parent somewhere disagrees with me in regard to their child, they can flag my content and, potentially, make a decision for any number of other people's children. (Yes, I know it's supposed to take multiple flaggings, but we have to trust livejournal to differentiate between multiple flaggings by a single other person and assume that no parent would ever get other people to flag a journal just to get it blocked.)
If I wrote a book or posted something to a physical bulletin board, it would be the responsibility of a parent to make sure their child didn't read what I wrote if they had some objection - not mine. I really believe that the same should be true in cyberspace. Sure, it might be more difficult, but hardly impossible. And, as I said, any system that people opt in to is just fine. But I really wish that parental responsibilities would be left up to parents.