Skout.
Have you heard about it?
It’s a flirting site – a new twist in social networking that even uses GPS to show others where you are.
Three child rapes have been credited to Skout. That is, three children have been raped by predators who used Skout to scout….
Truth is, Skout began as an adult service but the founders quickly realized that teens were attracted to it as well. And it does have a staff that monitors the active community for bad behavior. They even have technology—the “creepinator”—that does the same. Yet stuff does get through the technology and the human review didn’t seem able to stop the rapes.
Now, let’s be fair – I am not blaming Skout – in fact, reports indicate that many more cases like these were social-network or otherwise digitally enabled. More so, Skout has – to their credit – accepted a strong degree of accountability and are looking at new technology and procedures to limit the risk to minors (and others, I imagine).
So who do you blame?
Some would say digital channels and apps – and from some religious and conservative and religious-conservative corners, there is a growing chorus wanting to limit Internet access and development and to further regulate its usage.
Not to bash those more right of center – there is no doubt some wisdom in their position, and clearly we do need to make sure that we have adequate controls or maybe, better stated, adequate consequences for those who abuse the system.
Seems to me the issue is not the technology or even its broad access – in a sense that would be like blaming the printing press…all printing presses—for hurtful activities that occurred because someone read something printed.
What we need is education, parental control, peer pressure, clear societal mores with corresponding consequences.
At the end of the day, we all need to take accountability – we might live in the digital age but the outcomes still affect us as the humans we still are.
Bottom line – we make the mistakes, not the apps or the cloud or the devices – it’s us – and us alone. Yet we still seem to think that we can shift the problem – the blame – the accountability…listen:
“To err is human–and to blame it on a computer is even more so. “
Robert Orben
Time to stand up. Apps don’t rape nor do devices – and while Skout is to be commended for trying to find a solution – I’d recommend that they ask themselves, if it was their children at risk, what would they do?
So while screwing up is human – so is passing the blame – and passing it to technology just doesn’t cut it.
What do you think?
Agreed 100%. These crimes existed before the technology, and will continue to exist long after we’ve moved on to different apps, devices, etc.
Creeps have been picking up runaways at Port Authority for years, but I haven’t heard anyone suggest that the solution is to ban buses.
I agree. The same problem has existed for many years since the invention of the Internet. I believe a similar one arose when chat rooms came about around a decade ago.
Technology isn’t to blame, rather it is the human error in which naivety causes people to think that people “are who they say they are” in chat rooms, dating sites, and social apps. Passing the blame onto technology is part of the human error to refuse to believe that we did something wrong in our lapse of judgment. Rather than take the time to blame the emerging technology, we should take a step back and analyze our actions for using it in the first place, and think about the steps we could take towards preventing another momentary lapse of judgment from happening again.
As always, technology is a facilitator, not the cause.
I think everyone agrees that technology is not to blame and it seems as though the fault is more on the human side yet I offer a different perspective. There seems to be opportunity and a need in this entire social networking atmosphere for education in regards to the serious dangers that come along with flirting with strangers on these sites. There will always and forever be creeps scouring the internet and local streets seeking to do repulsive things to whomever yet I’m wondering how many people knew about that GPS locator before signing up. I’m sure that would have made a difference.
I put the blame squarely on Scout. Sure, pedophiles and other criminals are always looking for new ways to commit their crimes, but Scout should have know better! Here is an app that attracts teenagers who have yet to reach mental maturity, but shows their personal information AND geographic proximity to other users! Most of the kids don’t know or don’t care what that “allow GPS tracking” option does.What were the founders of Scout thinking? There are different types of risks in business, one of which is “enterprise-level” risk, meaning something like this can END your business. It’s amazing to me they didn’t have the forethought to address this risk from the beginning, much to the regret of those 3 victims.
In a society that is still struggles with basic things like texting (while driving, while in a meeting, while having sex!)… education, parental control and alikes all seem good but lets face it, people of all ages are still trying to figure out how to have a safe and healthy relationship with technology.
And while I love digital and technology and all things related. The truth to me is that while we dont come up with a decent digital identity management system, there will always be issues like this.
Yes parents and mores have their role but in the end of the day, our technology should not be more controllable but definitely put people more accountable for what they do with it. Which is not the case today.
I wonder how many of those who blame technology for crime are also pro-gun.
When it comes to a piece of technology that facilitates crime, the gun is the elephant in the room.
Skout certainly has a long way to go before it can match it with that bad boy.
The old adage holds true: “Guns Don’t Kill People…” However, just like there are strict controls on gun ownership (and arguably needs to be even stricter). There should be safeguards on the internet. Dating sites that allow people to meet with total strangers must have real identity verification.
I was waiting for the gun analogy and a good one it is too. Guns dont kill….Computers dont rape….where is Asimov when you need him!!!!!
Wow What A Great Post!…
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