There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them. -- André Gide.

I did not grow up with the Internet. I grew up searching libraries for information I needed. Around ten years ago I realized I needed to get with the program and learn about computers. I procrastinated as long I could but when I decided to learn I jumped in with both feet. I actually trained in the IT field as a computer network admin. I enjoy computers and the net but prefer participating in my "real time" life.

This brings me around to the story of a sixteen year old girl who headed to the middle east to meet a man she met on myspace. Her parents claim they were tricked into getting her a passport and she was stopped at the airport and brought back home safely, thank goodness. I dread the thoughts of what awaited this child.

Naturally all the heat comes down on myspace. The news media loves saying myspace in it's teasers and why is this? Because parents know its something all the kids are doing. It's "all the rage" and the news media has learned since the Bush administration took office, that fear works on Americans. The media taps the insecurities of parents who barely know how to email, and fills them with the notion that their precious chid is practically a pornographer and more likely a sex maniac who is hooking up with every pedophile from New York to California!

I'm not naive. Kids do meet other kids online from other area high schools but most of the kids I know exercise common sense and don't want to be in trouble at home. As I see it there are only two solutions for parents- learn how to use the Internet on the same computer as your kid also exercise common sense when it comes to what your offspring is doing. If your child says they are going to someones house or want a passport to visit elsewhere, it wouldn't hurt to make a few phone calls first.

Myspace isn't the problem with teens. Of course the problems run deeper in some homes. I was a very obedient teenager and even I managed to pull one or two capers over on my parents. If parents would make a point of doing some simple checking and bother to learn about a machine so easy kids operate it, the myspace alarmist would stop.

*For more on America culture of fear and the media's exploitation of that fear, see the film Bowling For Columbine.