[Air-l] Christians against MySpace?

[Mary K. Bryson]

First Sponge Bob, and now MySpace...

Interesting how this converges with the introduction of a new bill - Cyber
Safety For Kids Act of 2006 - in the U.S. Congress last week that revives
the specter of the mandatory relocation of all sexually "explicit" content
on the web to a .XXX domain name, regulated by ICANN -- As usual in these
scenarios, the definitions of what might be "harmful" and to whom, and what
is not harmful, provide a useful addition to the genealogy of censorship and
the history of moral panic and attempted containment of sex(uality).

The Cyber Safety For Kids Act of 2006 Bill:
http://www.boingboing.net/images/CyberSafetyforKids.pdf

" Senators Mark Pryor (D-AR), and Max Baucus, (D-MT) have proposed a bill
that would require all commercial websites with material "harmful to minors"
(in other words, sexually explicit content) to move to a .xxx domain within
6 months of this bill becoming law -- or face civil penalties. Under the
terms of the proposed law, the US Commerce Department secretary would be
required to develop a domain name for adult sites (presumably .xxx) with
ICANN."
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/03/17/new_bill_cyber_safet.html


Mary


On 3/29/06 12:51 PM, "danah boyd" <aoir.z3z at danah.org> wrote:

> Pastors are speaking out against MySpace during their services.
> (I've copied an article below to give the sentiments - it seems to
> have been taken offline.)  That said, there are huge Christian
> contingents on MySpace, including many religious teens who share
> Christian rock music and discuss bible studies in their profiles.
> Other social networking sites are popping up and attracting religious
> teens, including YFly.com.
> 
> 
> Pastor airs problem with MySpace.com
> 
> Valley Bible Fellowship leader warns parents against online forum
> popular with kids, teens
> 
> By DAVID BURGER, Californian staff writer
> e-mail: dburger at bakersfield.com
> 
> Posted: Sunday February 12th, 2006, 10:20 PM
> Last Updated: Monday February 13th, 2006, 9:19 AM
> 
> Is MySpace.com just another front for, say, MySatan.com?
> 
> That¹s the view of Ron Vietti, senior pastor of Valley Bible
> Fellowship in east Bakersfield. Vietti used Sunday¹s three services
> to deliver an hourlong attack against the evils of Internet social
> Web site MySpace.com and how it is ³worse than crack, cocaine or
> meth.² The senior pastor said the popular Web site lures young boys
> into pornography and sets up young girls as victims of sexual predators.
> 
> ³You say I¹m mad ‹ you bet I¹m mad!² he said to the capacity crowd
> during the 11:30 a.m. service, as congregants in the crowd hollered
> ³Amens² and ³Yeahs.²
> 
> MySpace.com, according to The Associated Press, has two-and-a-half
> times the traffic of Google.com, with over 50 million users according
> to some estimates. The free site ‹ which uses advertising to make
> money ‹ allows people to create personal Web pages to talk to
> friends, write their own blogs or meet new friends.
> 
> The ³new friends² are what Vietti is worried about. With six large
> binders in his hand, full of salacious pictures he printed off of
> MySpace.com ‹ pictures primarily of young girls ‹ the pastor told
> parents to get more involved in overseeing what Junior is doing in
> his bedroom online.
> 
> ³Pornography is a growing problem that is sweeping our land,² Vietti
> said.
> 
> ³(The Internet) is one-stop shopping for sexual predators,² he later
> said.
> 
> Vietti spent between 36 and 38 hours on MySpace.com this past week,
> after never hearing of the site until just a month ago. One night, he
> was up from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. documenting the evil he saw displayed.
> 
> The Web site allows people to post pictures and messages of whatever
> they¹d like, Vietti said. Many times this involves pornographic
> material, the pastor claimed.
> 
> Vietti¹s remarks contrast with the written MySpace.com photo
> submission policy. According to rules posted on the Web site, MySpace
> users must be at least 14 years old, and submitted photos must not
> contain any sexually explicit imagery, including nudity or pornography.
> 
> The policy also tells members that offensive photos can be flagged
> and removed by site administrators.
> 
> Vietti told his congregation of his own history: when he was 13, he
> became addicted to pornography and wasn¹t unleashed until he entered
> his 20s and ³gave my life to God.²
> 
> At the beginning of the service, the congregants ‹ there are 8,000
> members of the church, Vietti said ‹ received a card titled
> ³Commitment to Higher Values.²
> 
> The card implored parents to commit to four things: putting a filter
> on the Internet; putting the family computer in an open area; locking
> out the computer when parents aren¹t home; and spending more time
> with their children.
> 
> Vietti didn¹t stop there. At 6 p.m. on Feb. 20, he wants people
> concerned about stamping out Internet pornography to join a group he
> calls ³Special Ops Ministry² at the church building. The group will
> go to places, like bars, where young people hang out to convince them
> to delete MySpace.com from their computers and lives.
> 
> Congregants and fellow ministers were motivated by the pastor¹s
> impassioned testimony, they said.
> 
> Youth pastor Vince Sierra, 24, said that although MySpace.com does
> some good by helping people meet one another, the cons outweigh the
> pros.
> 
> ³I call it ŒMy Waste of Space.com,¹² said the pastor, who ministers
> to 200 students in high school and 350 students in junior high. ³I
> think it¹s a place where kids waste their time and lose that social
> touch.²
> 
> ³I don¹t (use the Internet) at home, because I don¹t trust myself,²
> said Vietti¹s 25-year-old son Josh. The temptation to look at
> indecent pictures
> would be too strong if he used the computer at home, he said.
> 
> Teenagers who are members of both the church and MySpace.com said
> they¹ve now given up the latter after hearing their pastor.
> 
> Richard Fuentez, 16, a junior at Golden Valley High School, said that
> although all of his friends are on MySpace, he is going to stop using
> it.
> 
> ³I¹d be a hypocrite if I kept it,² he said. He said, until Sunday, he
> didn¹t know that young girls who posted pictures and personal
> information of themselves on the site were unwillingly luring
> criminal minds.
> 
> David Casillas, 13, also a member of MySpace.com and the church, said
> he¹d tell his friends Tuesday ‹ Monday is a holiday for him ‹ that
> they should stop using MySpace. But he admitted that they¹d ³probably
> say no, because it¹s like an addiction.²
> 
> One parent of two teenagers, Lori Crabb, said parents should take
> advantage of the free filter software the church was handing out Sunday.
> 
> ³Until today, it was questionably safe,² she said. ³But I now know
> fully the danger.²
> 
> In contrast to the children who agreed with their pastor¹s
> denunciation of MySpace, other young people in Bakersfield supported
> the popular Web site.
> 
> MySpace.com users found on Chester Avenue in downtown Bakersfield
> Sunday afternoon had definite opinions about the Web site.
> 
> ³Where are the parents?² asked Alejandro Nuñez, 24, a local musician
> who has a 2-year-old son. He spends five hours a day on MySpace.com,
> he said, promoting his business and his band, using the site to build
> buzz and revenue.
> 
> ³Bad² is a subjective term, said Jonathan Pineda, 18, a MySpace.com
> user. Blaming MySpace.com for making pornography more available is
> senseless, he said ‹ it¹s everywhere.
> 
> ³People will find sin as easily as air,² he said.
> 
> Valerie Ramirez, 27, has three kids and said she wouldn¹t let her
> children use the site until they were 15 or 16. Until then, she said,
> her daughters ³should be reading a book.²
> 
> MySpace.com is so prevalent in the two years of its existence that
> Bakersfield College has outlawed the usage of MySpace.com on the
> college computers, according to a Feb. 1 story in The Renegade Rip,
> the college newspaper.
> 
> But the dangers are becoming increasingly well-documented.
> 
> As recently as Jan. 26, KHOU-TV in Houston, Texas, recounted the case
> of a 15-year-old girl who had sex with a 26-year-old man she¹d met on
> MySpace.com.
> 
> The last example proves that devious use of MySpace.com can have
> serious consequences.
> 
> The pastor also blamed MySpace.com for fostering bisexuality and
> called the Internet ³the devil¹s biggest scheme he has ever inserted
> into our lives.²
> 
> But part of Vietti¹s message was intended to be shocking, he
> admitted. He expects to get phone calls and e-mails this week from
> some congregants regarding his sermon.
> 
> ³I think it¹s worth saving one kid for all the e-mails and calls I¹ll
> get,² Vietti said. ³I want to make you moms and dads hopping mad,² he
> added.
> 
> 
> - - - - - - - - - - d a n a h ( d o t ) o r g - - - - - - - - - -
> "taken out of context i must seem so strange"
> 
> musings :: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts
> 
> 
> 
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