The Pornification of Society

He Says...

I was doing what the Rockers call a Facebook Audit a little while back. For various reasons, Mr and Mrs Rocker are not on Facebook though we allow our children to be on there so long as they act responsibly- this to be confirmed by the occasional Facebook Audit which are sometimes immediately precipitated by behavioural slip-ups. As was this one.

We try to enforce strict privacy rules in our house. Rules like- Knock first. Rules like- Stay out of the padlocked box at the foot of our bed. Rules like- You stay outta our stuff, and we'll stay outta yours. Rules like- you act like a respectful pre-teen and we'll act like respectful and trusting parents and not rummage through YOUR private stuff like your Facebook profile. Anyway, our 13 year-old transgressed, big time- or so we were tipped off.

So that prompted amongst other things, a laptop and Facebook audit. The audit didn't really turn much up. The little bugger was able to account for his 283 friends on Facebook. People I had never heard of with completely unfamiliar names, our boy responds with “uh yeah that's Bogdanovich from last year at school, he's just moved back to Tajikistan”. A fact annoyingly confirmed by his sister. 

What the audit did turn up though- a telling revelation that belies something about the pornified society we live in....

Our son is a good-looking boy, tall, well-mannered and a very popular kid. He's had an awesome year at school. Glowing reports, active in sports and culture, well liked amongst teaching staff. One of the culminations of the year prior to heading off to High School was the Leavers Party, which I sadly missed due to my travel schedule. It had a Hawaiian theme. Amongst the decorations at the party was a Hawaiian painted mural photo-backdrop. One of the pictures on Facebook was of my son with a girl on each arm, the name of the Facebook album? “I'm in Hawaii, Bitch”. My blood ran absolutely cold. Have I taught this kid nothing? Now apparently, there is a popular song of that name. But that's no excuse.

I guess it's prompted me to really wake up and consider “things I want my son to know”. I started a bloggy type list a while ago but this little Red Audit Finding prompted me to give it a little more urgent thought.

One of the things on the list, perhaps prophetically was...

“Don't believe Gangster (C)Rap (the “C” in Rap is silent) or otherwise believe that you exist in a world of male sexual entitlement and domination, you're being sold a dummy by consumerism that has a vested interest in the pornification of society. Unless you ARE a gangster rapper or a Saudi billionaire, chances are you'll have to function in a more just and equitable sexual society.”

I'm going to carry on working on the rest of the list. Urgently.