Give & Take

Let's Talk (Continued)

Would it scare you if you knew that someone who had done exactly what you did actually was confronted by someone with bad intentions?

If I knew the person and was close to them, kind of, but I do know stories of people who have been sexually assaulted over the Internet. All I can say is that doesn't always happen. The person had to be careless to a certain extent. If someone says "meet me here," I wouldn't do that, I know that. But I guess, sometimes, the circumstances are there, but you have to be kind of careless. Information like where you're going, what you're doing like exact information - "I'm being in the dark corner of an alley at 3:00 in the morning." That's careless if you say that. But I don't say anything like where I'm going to be.

Let's talk about photographs. Tell me about the type of photographs you might put up there.

I like putting up photos of me just doing random things. I don't have a digital camera, so whatever I can get I pretty much get. If I'm at a party and a friend takes a picture of me, then I want to put it up. I like putting pictures of me up that I think are pretty or make me look good or something. I would not put up any pictures of me like pornography or anything, and you do have to certify [in, when you post a photo] that it's not pornography. You can [get around that and] put up porn, but I don't.

There are degrees of poses ranging from hard core pornography, to suggestive facial expressions, dressing in a certain way that could be suggestive. Where would you draw the line?

If maybe I am acting a little sexy in a picture, I'd put it up not to be like "Hey, sexual predators, come to me," but like maybe as a joke because, yeah, we are like kind of teenagers and we put up things that maybe we shouldn't, but I feel if I didn't put up that picture, then regardless of whether a predator wanted me, it's not going to make a difference.

How old are you?

I'm 14.

How old do you say you are?

I say that I'm 16 on one site and 14 on the other.

Why do you say you're 16?

Well, you have to be over 16 to have an account on this service but it says on my profile that I was born in '91, so it's not like I'm trying to be 16, it's just that you have to be over a certain age and until I am that age, I have to be the lowest age possible.

Do you know kids under 13 who are doing this as well?

Yes, I have friends in 6th and 7th grade who have a blog or space?.

Are you willing to share your pages with your parents?

No. Because they kind of over react about everything. That's kind of what I've gotten used to.

Tell me about overreacting - why is that a problem?

I feel they have told me the risks and I know what the situation is, and I know as much information as possible. All they can do is tell me the risk. That's pretty much as far as what they can do, and I just have to take them into consideration when I put things on my space.

Do you think your parents would punish you, perhaps by taking away your Internet privileges or other privileges if they found you had crossed certain boundaries?

Yes, definitely.

And do you think that's appropriate parenting?

Well, I don't think they quite understand the situation half the time. I personally think that they think any picture of my looking good or even smiling is inappropriate and they probably think anything on my page is inappropriate, but that's just their mindset. I don't know if it's good parenting.. I realize the situation and I know that there are cases where someone has gotten hurt over the Internet. But I'm smart enough. At least I feel I'm smart enough to know not to meet anyone who comes to me, not to email or message anyone, not to add people as friends who I don't know or who could be potentially dangerous, and I always look at other people's profiles, and - as long as you know the risks - I feel that's kind of all you can do at the moment.