Tuesday 12 March 2013

Helpless Enchantment. A lone bag lady.

I am off to buy a larger handbag, yes, and not for pleasure  either. I need one. In addition to bills, chequebooks, school alerts and demands for money, and much loose change for children's wants, my bag must now accommodate the internet supply  Broadband Box, . No other way.  I have tried negotiated agreements with my children  re usage, concealing  the  Box in my  house, flinging  it  through the window, and basically all agreements are breached, the house is turned over  to uncover the Box, and panes of glass are expensive. So is comes to this.

"Your'e NOT bringing THAT with you",  my husband grabs the Broadband box, spilling out of my bag as I root for car keys. Well yes. And you can conclude that I am a crazy bag person or this, that the internet, social networking sites, free porn sites, et all are compulsive, addictive, and quite quite  spell binding to vulnerable, still forming teenage brains;. of a power and scope way beyond the capacity of your child to manage.  And it can be accessed from TV,  Laptop, Notebook, I pod, I pad, and common or garden Mobile Phone, so that other than yanking connection wires from the Box and shoving it in your bag, you are powerless against  the onslaught.

I am at the receiving end of constant  vehement, and  passionate arguments from my little addicts. I have heard it all. "On line for two hours??? Nooo, wasn't,  only on for 23 minutes" "but darling the laptop is almost on fire and I can count your searches",  "What!! count my searches? What is wrong with you!!". The martyred elder : "And I mean I just want to spend sometime online with my friends after a long day at school, who are never harassed in this way by THEIR parents, and I mean  WHY  can't I take your  Mac to my bedroom, WHY??" and,  cunningly,  "well,  if you are unplugging the broadband box, can I borrow your I Phone to call Dad?" . I actually consider handing it over till I see her little wheeze.  I have office funded Internet on my phone.. Also Dad is  usually  required to phone her to save her credit  .And then The Boy : "I am having a CONVERSATION here, I mean anyone would think I was a...a  junkie"  as  I snatch his Notebook at two o'clock in the morning.  Yes boy,  I do think.that, yes.

So. Do you allow your  Teen to fall down a rabbit hole each evening,  to where you cannot follow, and they
seemingly cannot return? I don't buy the proposition that the use of these sites  cannot be regulated. Networking sites should be forced to apply an age limit for use, and to limit usage hours.   Porn sites should be encrypted, available on payment of  money only. Fine them massively in default. Close them down.

Children, teenagers, are dying.  In Ireland we have escalating suicides,  self destruction through anorexia,  ghastly  cluster suicides, with a clear connection to social networking sites. Normal development is compromised  by  this daily diversion  of mental and  psychic energy.  What is the matter with us?. Helpless, helpless, helpless  as we stand aside for the Pied Piper.  Unable to insist on regulation. Unable to act.  If you have children YOU know.  And it IS that bad.

But hey, don't mind me. I am just  a woman with a Broadband Box in her bag.




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