From Jim Metrock: This
is my email to Parry Aftab the executive director of WiredSafety.org.
She appeared on a Channel One show that helped introduced millions
of young people to Myspace.com an
extremely dangerous site f not only for preteens but high school
students.
Ms. Aftab did respond to my email but it would be inappropriate
to publish it. She did not promise to stay off Channel One, but
hopefully that is what she will do.
After I sent this email I found out that Ms. Aftab is doing work
for Myspace.com. She is consulting with the company on safety issues.
I have no idea if she is accepting money from them, but wouldn’t
be surprised. Should Channel One have told its young captive audience
that this Internet safety expert talking about Myspace.com is in
a business relationship with the company?
Nah, that would smack of … journalism, and journalism is not
what Channel One News is about.
February 7, 2006
Ms. Aftab
I was disturbed that you would appear on Channel One to talk about internet
safety.
Channel One history of recklessness in this area was obviously unknown
to you.
Their channelone.com web site once hosted chat rooms for teens and preteens
that allowed private rooms so children could talk to other Internet
users.
Our child advocacy group Obligation, Inc. (obligation.org) shut down
those chat rooms by exposing them to the public.( https://obligation.org/website.html)
Channel One later came back with monitored chat rooms for children
but their monitors were spotty and we publicized the danger they
were posing to kids and again they shut down their operation. (https://obligation.org/c99bchatrooms.html)
We kept upsetting Channel One’s plans to make their web site a magnet
for kids. Unbelievably they came back with a truly awful feature
called "Personal Ads." (Again, I couldn’t make this stuff
up if I tried.) This is exactly what it sounds like. Children were
encouraged to post information about themselves so they could meet
up with others on the Channel One web site. We stopped them again
by writing articles about their recklessness.
Channel One introduced a dangerous feature called "Fresh Faces" (no
joke). https://obligation.org/freshfaces.html They
encouraged middle school students and high school students to post personal
information about themselves, including their picture, on their channelone.com
web site. After we tracked down one girl in Brentwood, TN and called
her principal, Channel One News shut down "Fresh Faces."
You can understand why Channel One doesn’t like our group.
Later Channel One introduced message boards for kids. These again were
monitored but after we ran a series of reports on the graphic nature
of some conversations, such as "cutters" giving instructions
on the various ways to cut you skin with knives, Channel One shut
down the message boards.
The show you appeared on obviously brought up some of the dangers of
using some popular web sites. Your points were important. The Channel
One anchor demonstrated how easy it was to find a person with posted
information, but the show taken as a whole was more like an advertisement
for Myspace.com. Like much of Channel One’s reporting, they can’t
alienate the young people in their audience so Myspace.com isn’t
good and it isn’t bad. They featured one young person concerned about
these sites and another unconcerned. Unfortunately, you participated
in a show that probably enticed tens of thousands of young people
to visit Myspace.com and the other sites for the first time.
There are many children who may not have known about these sites. Now
they do and Channel One made them look extremely appealing. Children
don’t think anything will happen to them.
I admire you for the work you do. I do hope you will refuse to appear
on the show again. I see your office is in New York state. That is
Channel One’s home state. Channel One News has been outlawed from
every public school classroom in NY since Channel One was created.
Channel One is easily the most controversial TV show in America. Having
a long history of endangering children is just one reason it is a
pariah among many educators and the public.
Thanks for your time. You might want to read the script from the show
(channelonenetwork.com)
you were on but better than that you can watch the show at channelone.com and
get the flavor of broadcast. Summed up the show said: There’s possible
danger here at Myspace, but you can handle it, because others have.
Best wishes,
Jim Metrock
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The Cingular Question of the Day is typical of Channel One’s approach to safety issues. This conveys the clear message that posting personal information on the Internet is OK. There may be a point of posting "too much." Children as young as ten are compelled to watch Channel One. This screen shot was shown in middle schools and some elementary schools. |
