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© 1996-2008,
Frederick S. Schaeffer, SFO
315.Chatrooms are dangerous places
Sometimes
people call me, and ask where to find
this or that in Holy Scripture. Besides
the fact that my memory isn't all that
sharp anymore, I usually ask what
prompted the question in the first
place. When I hear it has something to
do with chat-rooms, and what is being
discussed there, I begin to get worried.
A chat
room is a computer site online where
visitors can exchange messages by typing
them onscreen which makes them appear to
scroll by as a conversation develops
with other visitors to the site. The
danger with chat rooms is that you will
not know who you are dealing with other
the other side of the conversation. Many
visitors use "handles" - fictitious
names to cover their real identity, and
they are under no obligation to reveal
their real identity.
There are
Christian, and even Catholic chat rooms
that are perfectly safe, because the
owners of these websites make a point of
filtering what is being discussed - and
thus these site owners have the
possibility of eliminating conversations
that get out of hand. Some people may
call this censorship or against the 1st
Amendment, but if I had a chat room and
owned the underlying website, I would
have every right to keep things clean.
Many chat
rooms are cesspools of "anything
goes", sex, profanity, etc., what one
might call the "devil's workshop." Stay
away from these places!
Many adult
men/women, who use chat rooms prey on
young children. Some conversations
become pornographic. I've used "clean"
chat rooms, but generally I stay away
from them.
If you
have children, who are in that "curious"
age group, please educate them on pro's
and con's of using chat rooms. As a good
Catholic Father or Mother, you would be
well advised to suggest your children
stay out of chat rooms altogether.
If they
are seeking companionship, friendship,
the place for that is (perhaps) where
you work, go to school, Church, etc. A
chat room hardly qualifies as a place to
meet people whom you'd want to see
again. That is not to say that mature
people can have mature conversations
with other mature people, but much of
the chit-chat in a chat room is anything
but mature.
The
problem with young children when a
parent strongly suggests or forbids
seeking a contact (Internet or
otherwise) with strangers, kids have a
tendency to seek such a contact anyway,
because what is taboo is exciting,
daring. So you have a task ahead of
yourself in trying to get your point
across. As teens mature, they will be
able to set their own limits of what
they want to get into or not. These
limits are often determined through
bitter experiences, and we must pray for
our children and young adults that they,
in turn, will listen to the guidance of
the Holy Spirit.
May God bless
you and all our sisters and brothers!
Fred Schaeffer, SFO
09/24/2008
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