Being a teacher, I’m off for the summer. I don’t have to do anything. But I did promise myself to get up with my honey, change clothes, do my morning ablution, etc. I think I stayed in my sleepwear until noon two days. Not bad. Right? 
As this is my very last summer of doing what “I” want, I decided to do whatever I wanted, when I wanted.
For example, I tried watching TV…you know, turn on the TV in the morning and channel surf…watching whatever catches my fancy…ALL DAY LONG. I made it through one day of that. And even that was a struggle. Most of the time, I just had it on as background noise. There was really nothing on that I’d want to watch every single day. By the second day, even the noise was bothersome. So most of the day, I don’t even have the TV on.
I do watch some. Like the baby shows on TLC. Well, I did. After a week of that, I was getting too much information about the whole childbirth thing. And every now and then, I’d catch Oprah when she was doing topics that was of interest to me. (No, I don’t normally watch her. It’s just a ‘once in a while’ thing.)
This Thursday, she reran one that I missed the first time around about child pornography.
What broke my heart was the fact he was such a normal kid…honor student, fresh-face boy.
Things happened slowly…innocently at first. They’re patient…the pedophiles.
I could see ANY child, boy or girl, getting lured into that.
He was eventually helped by a journalist who accidentally stumbled into this dark world. Justin, being a computer expert, saved every single piece of communication he had with them…so maybe something can be done to them. (I don’t believe in the death penalty…that’s too fast and easy for evil people who hurt the helpless!)
The last thing Kurt Eichenwald, the journalist, said was that if any child/teen has a webcam in his/her room, TAKE IT OUT NOW.
I talked to B about it later. We both agreed that there would be no TV, much less a computer in Noodles’ room. For his homework, there will be a desktop computer in the common area with the monitor facing the room.
Call me paranoid…but having accidentally stumbled on porn sites, (it’s whitehouse.GOV!)…it’s too easy for things you don’t want influencing your child to get inside your home.
Which leads me to another…somewhat similar but totally different subject.
Virgin Mobile started a campaign to give clothes to homeless kids called “Strip2Clothe.” (btw, don’t type to for 2…guess what it was? Yup, porn.)
Now, I’ve never considered myself a prude. B tells me I’m a raging liberal. (I think I’m more middle of the road…but again, I digress.)
I’ve been reading other parent & other blogs about this site and their campaign. There were several people who were complaining that “Americans are so uptight about nudity. Kids are going to see what they are going to see. In Europe, the body is nothing to be ashamed of.”
I don’t have a problem with that. I certainly don’t plan on avoiding museums with Noodles just because of the nekkid people.
However, I thought this campaign was…not immoral…just tasteless.
In their (Virgin) defense, they do specify no nudity. The one that I did watch was creative, in fact. (A boy did a ’striptease’ with different photos of clothing held in front of him. His face is never shown. You never see anything questionable.) Still, the ’strip to give clothes’ to teens!
With the Oprah show fresh in my head, I felt very uncomfortable with this campaign. And the fact that many hip companies were a part of it. Pedophiles that get off on watching innocent fun. (and yes, they could get their jollies anywhere…but googling ‘teens stripping’ or other such nonsense…isn’t it asking for trouble?)
Am I a prude? Maybe I am more than I thought. But I won’t be using their mobile phones.
