BLOG 13

Subrina Samaroo

November 3^rd, 2011

Rough Draft for discourse analysis

Dr. Chandler 

            In our society today, it is more than obvious to say we are living in the age of technology. Children of all ages use the internet on a daily basis as a part of their everyday routine. The internet has become the place to go to do research, download music and play games, as well as to communicate with family and friends. However, the internet can be a very dangerous place especially for young children. It is important for parents to monitor and restrict their children from certain websites and various social networking forums. The chat room transcript is a reflection of how children are unaware of the dangerous aspects of the “online world,” and illustrates reasoning behind why parents should have a vital role in their child’s online activities.

In the chat room transcript between Dr. Chandler (CH) and Angela (A), the two discuss A’s experiences using chat rooms. In excerpt 1, A tells the story of how she thought she talked to a pedophile and how she felt about it. A stated, “and you could also chat strangers - which was dangerous cause I think I talked to a pedophile I'm not sure, I I was in fifth grade I gave him my phone number when he called me I hung up I was so scared.” Here we see one example of how dangerous the internet can be, and we also see that A was unaware of the danger because she gave the pedophile her phone number. She did not realize that this person she was talking to might have been lying about their age and who they were, until she received the phone call.

After describing how scared she was, Ch asked her did she ever tell her mom and A said, “No I never told my mom or dad.” A goes on to explain that her parents did not know too much about computer and had only learned recently. A stated, “cause my parents weren't familiar with computers or web tv and I was a child exploring it -like - there was no restrictions, my parents didn't know how to put restrictions, they weren't too familiar with it.  It's only maybe three of four years ago that my mom learned how to use a computer so being a child, discovering it on your own could be really dangerous when there's chat rooms, and talking to people telling you that they're your age, but they're not.”

As we see from A’s first experience with chat rooms, she had no restrictions and was pretty much free to do whatever she wanted. Since her parents did not much about the internet, they were not able to monitor the programs or websites A came across. She had to go through the experience with the pedophile to learn that sometimes people on the internet do not always tell the truth and you have to be very careful of whom you talk to and what private information is given out, and she used her situation to guide others to be cautious of chat rooms.

Since A’s parents did not know much about computers, when she was a little older she became very strict over her siblings. A stated, “I was careful, and then I was strict on my younger sister and my brothers using the computer.  I also hogged the computer because I liked talking to my friends. But when my sister started going online I would check up on who she's talking to, I would look over, I would check the history, see what websites she went on.” Here it can be determined that A was acting like the parent and monitoring what her sister was doing on the internet. Since A had already had a scary experience with the pedophile, she knew what kinds of websites to look for that could propose dangerous risks. A was now aware of the unsafe parts of the “online world” and could prevent her siblings from going through some of situations she faced.

In excerpt 2 of the chat room transcript, Ch and A discussed another experience using chat rooms. However, this time A was not scared because she was talking to someone she knew. A described the situation as, “um, one time we were in a chat room, chatting, well my friend and I were like, oh lets go with that guy's sceen name, and then, he was like do you have a picture, we sent a picture, we found out it was our pastor's son who was like 20, and we're like eeuew he's like an older brother, and then when he saw our picture he's like why are you doing that, why were you sending pictures to strangers, and kind of got mad at us.” In this excerpt, the pastor’s son assumes the parent role and questions A’s actions. He gets mad at A and her friend because he is aware of the dangers of sending you picture to someone you do not know.

Once again A does not see the danger in her action because the pictures were sent to someone who she viewed as an older brother. A stated, “it was kind of embarrassing, we were like eeuuew, we go to church with him, he's old.” A found this experience to be embarrassing rather than dangerous because it was someone she knew, rather than a complete stranger. What A failed to realize was that this still could have been a dangerous situation because even in cases where you know the person in the chat rooms, that does not always mean you can trust them with your pictures.

This transcript is just one of many examples of how dangerous certain aspects of the internet can be. Chat rooms may be a great place to meet new people and talk to family and friends, but it can also be very risky and get people into a lot of trouble. Young children especially, who are not yet aware of some of the harmful and unsafe parts of the “online world” need to be extra careful when talking to strangers in chat rooms. Parents need to monitor not only what their children are doing, but also who their children are talking to on the internet. In some cases, like A where parents do not know much about computers of how to check the websites their child is using, should have an older sibling or a trusty friend or family member keep a close eye on their online activities. This way parents can ensure that while their child is having fun with the internet, they are still be safe and are aware of the dangers that it beholds.