Why Social Media Needs A Psycho Button

Los Angeles, CA

Friend used to mean someone you knew, someone you liked, hung out with.  Now it's a meaningless tag for a random stranger who's real face you're never going to be sure about.

Or whose intentions you can never really know.

A 14-year-old girl is in the hospital after being kidnapped from her North Hollywood home and raped by a man she met on Facebook.  She was found by a family friend and rescued.  When police went to pick up the suspect at his home in South Los Angeles, he'd skedaddled.

Odds are good that he's on the run.  But most of these guys never run far, so crossing fingers they nail him soon.

The internet's great, sure.  But how many of the people on your Twitter feed or on your Facebook friends list do you really know?  Unless you know them in real life, I'm going to say none.  Responses can be tailored.  You only get what that person is telling you with no real context.  When they go on about their personal life woes, how do you know they're telling the truth?  When they agree with your opinions, how do you know they're not manipulating you?

Well, you don't.  The best you can do is watch out, be careful and don't do things like give your address.  Especially if you're a woman.  This sort of thing is happening more and more.

I'm not blaming the victim or social media, here.  I'm blaming the psycho fuckwad who raped a 14-year-old girl.

Used to be a parent only needed to tell their kids, "Don't talk to strangers.  Babies come from storks.  Daddy's gone to live with that whore down the street with her ankles round her ears and if you want to live with him, you little bastard, well, fine!  Go ahead, be that way!  Leave your mother alone in tears and desperation and..."

Sorry.

Anyway, now you have to explain to a kid that a stranger is a bunch of words on a screen and that the picture they see may not be the person they think.  That's not an easy concept for a kid.  And balancing that out such that they aren't afraid to take risks but still understand the dangers?  That's really tough.

So, good luck moms and dads.  This century's a little more complicated than the last one.