Castro, Edison M. (PCA) writes:
WE HAVE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR OWN ACTIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, right ... when it comes to shouting, all this "blame the victim"
has gone too far.
I have users who are *illiterate*. They can click, but they can't
read. They can click on little pictures and listen to greetings in
their native language or view videos of relatives they haven't seen in
decades. I refuse to believe this is bad.
Some of my illiterate users just haven't learned to read *yet*. They
will when they're old enough to go to school. However, it will be a
long time before they can comprehend that the computer screen is a
window into a world full of bad people who want to damage their
mommy's computer.
These users are here in the US. That the 'love bug' worm is believed
to have originated in the Philippines should be sufficient reminder
that not every potential victim is a literate English-speaking
resident of North Americal or Europe. It may be that technology has
no way for the network to protect villagers in Bangladesh or central
Africa. However, reaching that conclusion and saying the network
should not try as a matter of philosophical principle are very
different. Of course capable users should protect themselves as best
they can, but who is prepared to say that helpless users don't belong
on our Internet?
--
Dick St.Peters, stpeters(_at_)NetHeaven(_dot_)com
Gatekeeper, NetHeaven, Saratoga Springs, NY
Saratoga/Albany/Amsterdam/BoltonLanding/Cobleskill/Greenwich/
GlensFalls/LakePlacid/NorthCreek/Plattsburgh/...
Oldest Internet service based in the Adirondack-Albany region