Centerfield

Shouldn't It Be The Adults Who Are Enrolled In This?

Slashdot has a story on new, mandatory Internet safety lessons for kids in Virginia This seems backwards to me - shouldn't It Be the adults who are enrolled in this?

I mean, looking around at what's happening on the ground, I see mostly adults getting hurt. It's mostly adults who grew up before the Internet and don't understand the new dangers or whom've failed to adapt to the new ways of doing things (hi, NYT and RIAA member companies!). For them, the Internet really is dangerous.

The actual numbers on successful Intenet predation of kids are quite small, indeed. After all, their parents and their guts told them to be careful with strangers, and of course of course people on the Internet are people, and of course the warnings apply to all people. And, fooling adults is easier and offers better return to most of the evil population.

Of course, adults who grew up pre-Internet rule our legislatures and lobbyists, so no surprise we see plenty of legislation panicing about the Internet. Well, except for the younger ones who deliberately keep their voters afraid to hang onto their jobs.