New fairytales needed for cyberspace

No one in their right mind would drop off a teenager in an unknown city, on an unknown street and let them stand there to meet anyone who might come along. Yet, everyday we drop our kids off in cyberspace, where the same thing may happen, without a thought.

The return of a missing Hailey teenager Tuesday was a relief for the whole valley. Police said the girl may have run away to meet someone she had met in a chat room on the Internet. The widely reported circumstances surrounding her disappearance has everyone wondering about the dangers of the Internet.

The Internet is a powerful communications tool. It offers easy access to information that was previously very difficult to get. Whole libraries of current laws, medical research and business information are available for the price of a computer and a phone line. The Internet has shrunk the world and made remote places a lot less remote.

As with every good thing, the Internet comes with a dark side. With only 20 to 30 percent of the nation hooked up to the Internet, not everyone is aware of the dangers that range from cyber-addiction to encounters with criminals.

Anyone with electronic mail knows about electronic junk mail, the pernicious, sometimes salacious solicitations that arrive uninvited. Other risks are less apparent. Chat rooms may seem like friendly places, but adults know the unnerving sense that comes with communicating with someone who is invisible and who may or not be providing a real name.

Most adults know the pitfalls of taking people on the other side of the invisible universe at face value. Kids don’t. How can we warn and protect them?

Even though parents and communities would like to have a protective barrier surround every child until the age of 18, it’s not realistic. Special chips that filter TV programming and Internet access may help, but they still won’t remove the possibility that kids may encounter danger in cyberspace. The best bet is to teach kids caution.

It won’t be easy. Computer technology has evolved faster than society’s ability to deal with it. The Internet has evolved faster than storytellers can devise and revise fairytales to warn of its dangers.

Fairytales? We do not jest. Fairytales have been told for centuries to warn unwitting young people about danger. For example, "Little Red Riding Hood" warns that friendly strangers may not be what they appear. In the context of the 1990s, the tale doesn’t work. Hooded cloaks are not in style and grandma’s house may be half a continent away, not just through the woods.

We have no modern fairytales about the dangers that may lurk in cyberspace. So, we need to make up our own or brush up the old ones. A modern version of Little Red Riding Hood would have the girl turn on a computer, innocently wander into the jungle of the Internet and happen upon BBW.net, or the Big Bad Wolf’s chat room. A good imagination can take it from there.

A few scary stories told in the safety of home or school could protect kids from the dark side of the Internet.