Boards
Channel 4 News' Habbo Hotel fixation
The first 20+ minutes of C4 News last night was dedicated to it. And then another 5+ minutes, later on (featuring a shouty angry agressive Krishnan being made to look like more of a prick than usual by two women who made a decent job of making him look daft).
Didn't see it on Tuesday, but apparently they spent a similar amount of time on the same story.
Felt really weird watching it. Like there had been some technical hitch and they were re-running some tape from the mid-nineties about videogame violence or something when they should have been reporting on actual news - of which there is no shortage at the moment.
The 'news' in question: there are some pervs and perverts on a sims-ish social network that sells gift cards (for upgrades, etc?) in Tesco et al.
And we're supposed to be outraged.
No. Not having it. The internet is not a freebie creche. You wouldn't give your kids free choice in DVD rental place and let them watch their chosen film without checking what they've chosen. So don't do it on the internet. And if you don't know what your young children are up to then you're a negligent parent. It shouldn't be left to the European Union or whoever (which Krishnan kept banging the drum for) to be responsible your children in everyday social interaction. We can expect a high level of control of content on something like, say, a fixed/static Ben10 website.
Social networking sites are like any other completely open social meeting place IRL. Really surprised at C4 News for peddling the internet = paedogeddon thing. As ever, dads/uncles = paedogeddon would be more accurate. But if they really feel the need for a general investigation, then the Friday 7.30 slot would make more sense than taking up half the programme with it for two weekdays running. Really odd scenes.