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From @dixiechick547.
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1/In that discussion on organizations sending binders to underage girls without their parents permission I started to wonder, are these people particularly naive or so driven by ideology they’re willing to exploit children to attain their ultimate goal? One of the first things
2/we teach our kids is that adults don’t have secrets with kids. As a counselor I make it clear in my first meeting with minors that I will not keep secret anything I judge to be a risk to their health and safety. Adults that keep secrets with kids are untrustworthy and
3/liable to be predatory. When you reach out to kids behind their parents backs you’re teaching them that this behavior is okay. And while YOU might be perfectly sincere and only want to be helpful what happens when someone sinister comes along? We know there are pedophiles
4/drawn to this community as they always are to vulnerable kids. Telling kids that it’s okay to keep secrets from their parents. That it’s okay to meet strangers alone is setting them up to be exploited. The lack of consideration and frankly breathtakingly reckless nature
5/of this behavior is absolutely baffling. Are they really that clueless? Or do they simply not care? Our culture is saturated with porn and predators. Sites where young people congregate are constantly under assault. We have to teach our kids to be vigilant. To look to their
6/parents and other trusted adults for guidance through what can be a treacherous mine field. Quiet as it’s kept despite their outwardly sophisticated demeanor our kids are actually LESS mature and resilient than we were at the same age. Yeah they’ve seen and heard it all but
7/they spend a lot less time interacting IN PERSON with other human beings and that is what gives us our ability to judge and read other people. Reading posts online conveys very little information. Our kids can’t read body language and tone the way we learned to do at an early
8/age. We can immediately spot the overly eager smarminess of a perv, while they see a ‘nice guy’ who ‘actually listens to them.’ Teaching them that talking to strangers about intimate matters is okay sets them up for exploitation. I thought every reasonable adult knew better.
9/But now I wonder. Are they cynically indifferent or do they simply not know any better?