What is a 'Moral Panic'?
A moral Panic by definition is “the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order”. According to Stanley Cohen, a moral panic occurs when "condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." Witch-hunts, McCarthyist in the US during the 1950s, jewish hatred during WW2 and fear of Muslims after the attacks of 9/11 in the US are all referred to as moral panics.
Moral Panic in Social Networking
Most recently, with the explosion of technology and more importantly, the internet as a tool becoming more common in everyday life in the developed world, social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace have become the hubs of modern social circles, sources of news for young generations and a meeting place for friends and family. These hubs of social activity continue to become more and more important to younger generations and the places where they ‘need to be’ in order to maintain a social status among friends and keep updated in a rapidly moving, online world today. This stress of importance on the need for inclusion in social networking, is in turn pressuring younger and younger generations into taking part in by opening there own online accounts and uploading their own content for their friends to see.
This exposure of young teenagers and children on social networking sites, which themselves promote an open and carefree atmosphere, is quite often abused or misused by individuals, resulting in the most common issues of ‘Cyberbullying’ or ‘sexual predators’ online.
Cyberbullying
Essentially cyberbullying is:
“the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others. -Bill Belsey"
“According to a 2005 survey by the National Children's Home charity and Tesco Mobile[14] of 770 youth between the ages of 11 and 19, 20% of respondents revealed that they had been bullied via electronic means. Almost three-quarters (73%) stated that they knew the bully, while 26% stated that the offender was a stranger. 10% of responders indicated that another person has taken a picture and/or video of them via a cellular phone camera, consequently making them feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, or threatened. Many youths are not comfortable telling an authority figure about their cyber-bullying victimization for fear their access to technology will be taken from them; while 24% and 14% told a parent or teacher respectively, 28% did not tell anyone while 41% told a friend.”
(Wikipedia, 2011)
In September 2006, ABC News reported on a survey prepared by I-Safe.Org. This 2004 survey of 1,500 students between grades 4-8 reported:
· 42% of kids have been bullied while online. One in four have had it happen more than once.
· 35% of kids have been threatened online. Nearly one in five had had it happen more than once.
· 21% of kids have received mean or threatening e-mails or other messages.
· 58% of kids admit someone has said mean or hurtful things to them online. More than four out of ten say it has happened more than once.
58% have not told their parents or an adult about something mean or hurtful that happened to them online.
(Wikipedia, 2011)
As it has become more common in society, particularly among young people, legislation and awareness campaigns have arisen to combat it. These have taken on the form of online campaigns and websites promoting the proper and fair use of content online and the treatment of others online. For example: webwise.ie, bullying.co.uk and cyberbullingnews.com.
Sexual predators online
The term ‘sexual predator’ is “used pejoratively to describe a person seen as obtaining or trying to obtain sexual contact with another person in a metaphorically "predatory" manner.” In relation to online social networking sites, these individuals misuse the sites to find potential victims and lure them into meeting in person. Most commonly, these individuals portray a false persona online in order to gain enough of their victims trust to meet them in person.
For good reason, this has maintained an on-going moral panic as parents fear for the safety of their children as they may meet strangers online on social networking sites who are communicating with them for malicious purposes. Their have been cases in recent years where children have met someone online who appears to be someone they are not and in some cases, have organized to meet in person, without making their parents of it.
With the escalating fear of online predators, many groups have been organized online to counter predator groups, prevent attacks and provide information to parents on how to protect their children online. Examples of these are: protectkids.com, perverted-justice.com and familywatchdog.us.
Legislation has been passed in several countries in an effort to counter this issue also. For example, in the US:
“The Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in May by Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA), was passed by a vote of 410 to 15 on July 26. It requires, with few exemptions, that facilities receiving federal aid block minors from accessing commercial social-networking sites and chat rooms, where they might encounter adults seeking sexual contact.”
(Technologyreview.com, 2011)
This kind of legislation, however intended to protect young internet users, may have a negative effect also. On this particular bill it was said:
"If it would actually prevent predation, I would be fine with it," says Danah Boyd, a PhD candidate in the School of Information Management Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, who is considered one of the leading scholarly authorities on social-networking sites. "But it's not going to help at all. Out of 300,000 child abductions every year, only 12 are by strangers. This is just going to stifle the social-networking industry and completely segment youth around economic status."
(Technologyreview.com, 2011)
As such, it is possible to see that as we strive to place restriction and boundaries to protect the young and keep out the malevolent forces online, we may also be restricting others in the long run, those already finding it hard to get online and meet others in good-will.
(**Images yet to be uploaded**)
Related links:
