Summer Warning: Just When You Think You’ve Figured It Out©
by Doug Fodeman, Director of Technology & Communications
Brookwood School, Manchester, MA DFodeman@Brookwood.edu
Summer is so close we can all taste it. Barbecues, swimming, summer camps, travel, and lots and lots of play time. Our children will be playing online as well as outside, and there are two increasingly popular areas of the internet that elementary school children are exploring. In so doing, they are putting themselves at risk and exposing themselves to extremely inappropriate material for their age. These virtual communities are online diaries, called web logs or “blogs”, and online role-playing gaming worlds.
Blogs
The idea of blogs is simple. They are an online version of the hardcover diary that many of us grew up writing as kids and kept hidden in some private corner of our room. These online versions, however, have several interesting twists. They are published in a very public forum so that visitors or members of the “blog community” may read and/or respond. Some may also come with real-time chat or the ability to upload images or make surveys for blog members to take. Some blog communities are obviously geared toward teenagers (teenopendiary.com) or young adults (coolblog.textamerica.com) while others are clearly marketed toward young girls (diaryland.com). Even adults use them, such as Presidential Candidate John Edwards(blog.johnedwards2004.com). Blogs encourage people to write about themselves, their feelings, their thoughts and ideas, and they are fast becoming a legitimate social phenomenon. However, blogs have a dark side that makes them very inappropriate places for children to explore. Take, for example, www.diaryland.com.
The design, colors, font and language all suggest that this would be a wonderful place for girls in grades 4 - 8 to express themselves. Yet it took me less than two minutes to find diary entries from members such as Pantypulldwn or Metal-Wh0re that were extremely sexually graphic and written as if they were intended for a hard core pornography site. Many members’ screen names were so sexually graphic that I can’t publish them here. Now imagine your child in this virtual community, writing about her/his life and inviting responses from other members of this community. Most blog communities, like the internet itself, represent a “world without rules or boundaries”. There are no loving adults/parents responding to teens, tweens and children’s online exploration of sexuality, language and emotion. These are not healthy places for children to explore without an adult. Blogs are not just places to write; they are unmoderated communities of people of all ages who interact, respond, reflect, and form relationships. There are no safeguards or boundaries to protect children from inappropriate material or contact.
Online Gaming
By “Online Gaming,” I don’t mean chess, checkers, or the hundreds of different games available throughout the internet for Macs, PCs or played directly through the web browser. I mean a very specific genre of game known in the industry as MMORPG. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. These role playing games include Warcraft, Halo, Asheron’s Call, Anarchy and others. The worst and perhaps best known offender is Everquest. [For a complete list, visit: http://www.mmorpg.com/ and click “Game List” located in the upper right] These games must be purchased and installed on your Mac or PC. Some come with a year’s subscription to the online environment while others require an additional subscription if the gamer wishes to play online. These games all share in common the opportunity to join a team of players on the internet 24/7 and work cooperatively through the game environment to achieve common goals that insure the survival of the team and advance the team through the gaming environment.
There are several risks associated with MMORPGs. They tend to be highly addictive. The latest research suggests that approximately 1 in 5 players ages 12 - 17 becomes addicted. Along with the typical 20 - 30 hours of gaming that players log per week, there is an accompanying loss of identity and detachment from reality. Reality becomes somewhat distorted and the consequences include damage to relationships, loss of sleep, as well as avoidance of real life issues. Also some of these games are extremely violent and denigrate women by the way they are portrayed. From a 20-year old Everquest player:
“I've always been shy around people and never had a great social life and online gaming pretty much become the outlet for that. I've basically spent every waking hour online playing games so I could basically make up for my poor self-esteem in the games by leveling my characters so I'd be better than most and socializing a lot so I'd become a liked person. I recently tried to quit EQ, but after a month I was too bored with normal life again so I got sucked right back into it.”
Graduate student, Nick Yee at Stanford University has done the best research in this area and has a web site devoted to these studies. Visit "Ariadne - Understanding MMORPG Addiction" located at www.nickyee.com/hub/addiction/home.html. He also publishes a periodic newsletter on the subject titled the “Daedalus Project” at www.nickyee.com/daedalus.
The issue of MMORPGs affecting elementary school children is quite real. I know of 5th and 6th grade children at other independent schools who are playing MMORPGs and one of those fifth graders has addictive behavioral problems. Once again, I strongly recommend that parents research a computer game before purchasing it for their child. Specific guidelines should be considered before allowing a child to play any games online. Time spent, online community, level of interaction with other players and level of violence/nudity should all be considered.
**This article cannot be reprinted without written permission from the author.