It is interesting to me to see the different angles from which people attempt to tackle a question.
Most of the posters above choose to focus on the rights of the individual to make stupid decisions. Stony, obviously a student of old 60s Feminist ideology, included a few of those old saws but essentially responded the same.
DOC111 is the only person so far who responded to a somewhat larger question of the future ramifications of these woman's actions.
Figtree saw the issue as being one of censorship and chose to address that aspect. That is fair, though beat to death IMO.
Of all the statements this one stuck out in my mind the most.
I live in constant fear that my 12 year old will have a lapse in judgment and come home and say,"I think I'm pregnant." I'm gonna stock up on RU-486 when she's allowed to date.
I began to write about how many things are wrong with this statement and then realized this was a whole other topic that would jack the thread so I stopped. But I digress.
The point I wish to encourage people to consider is that while the individual choices and liberties of the girls involved in GGW are valid issues, there are many other questions and a much larger picture. What about the issue of society and how these videos relate to it?
Below is a wiki for social proof. This is a well studied phenomenon that looks at what can be called herd mentality. IllegalSmile mention the media and how effective this is in bringing depravity into the main stream. So, what is the effect of this? Is the efficacy of this technology piping debauchery into the minds of our youth in a way that will influence their choices and their conduct in profound ways? According to the research, the answer is a resounding yes.
Now, I am not suggesting censorship; that discussion is a whole other topic where we get into first amendment rights etc. But, the first thing that ought to be clear is that we can identify and be clear on the existence of a problem without necessarily jumping straight into what we should do about it. Doing that only sets up a false dichotomy.
So, first, we need to be clear that representing debauchery as normal, acceptable, every day conduct does cause negative ramifications. Read the article below and this becomes clear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Proof
Short of censorship, what we can do is set standards for acceptable conduct. Not necessarily laws or regulations but social standards. Standards that say that 12 year old girls should never under any circumstances be in situations in which there is no adult supervision where sex would be possible. If you look at where many of these GGW videos are made you see young kids; often under 18 at full out spring break drinking parties. What kind of message does this send when a parent even permits them to go to such a place? And what message is this sending to the friends of the kid who gets to go or the kid who sees the adds on TV? We all know the first thing a kid says is "so and so is going, or so and so gets to do X." That is social proof by the way. When I hear about a 16 year old girl hurt, raped, missing, etc at spring break, the first thing that crosses my mind is what parent allows a 16 year old girl to go to spring break.
Now, I don't mean to lock them in a cage until they are 30. I just mean that just as social proof can be used to teach them bad habits, it can be used to teach them good habits. This is where standards come into play. This is where the message that we as a society chooses to send becomes important. This is often refered to as the "moral fabric" of society and this is an explanation rooting in logic as to why we have a moral fabric and why it must be upheld.
We have a choice, we can all vote for an "anything goes" culture and we raise a nation of low self esteem morons who wind up on GGW which will haunt them for life, or we as a society can uphold standards of decency that will encourage mental growth, self esteem, self respect and responsibility.
Life is not just about looking at everything through a soda straw. We as individuals don't live in an isolated bubble - the things we do and the choices we make all contribute to the larger picture that is the human condition. We all need to put down the soda straw and start seeing the big picture.
