“Good
news, everyone”, announced
Sarah at the weekly staff meeting. “The Office has given
the go-ahead for us to install the internet for use by the young people.”
“At
last,” responded
Leroy, “ we’ve been waiting ages for a simple
decision”.
“But
we have to make sure it’s used properly. No unsuitable web sites
and fair shares for all are our main points to watch out for.”
“We
can have a child block put on undesirable sites and we can ask who
wants to use it, and have a timetable for access,” suggested
Vinney.
“I
still can’t see why we need to have the damn thing in the house,”
grumbled
Fran.
“Because
many of their peers at school have it, because it is a great source
of information for homework and can help with literacy and is generally
fun. That’s why,” replied
an enthusiastic Justin.
The young people
greeted the news with cheers and excitement.
“Me
first,” announced
Dwain.
“Oh
yer, and who says so?” challenged
Nickki.
“Before
you two start a row, let me point out a couple of things”, said
Vinney.
“First,
I want all of you who plan to use the internet to give me your names
and to sign up to a few simple rules. Then when you have done that,
I will draw up timetable of who and for how long you can be on line.
Does that sound fair?”
“I
suppose so, though I don’t like the sound of the idea of ‘rules’.
I thought it was meant to be fun”, responded
Dwain.
“The
other thing is that Justin will be with you for the first session
to go through the rules and help with the process of using the net.
After that you are on your own, but you can come to Justin or me if
you get stuck or want advice, okay?”
The
novelty effect of use of the net soon wore off and its use became
part of the leisure activities of most of the young people. Staff
were quite pleased that young people would pop into the computer room
and quietly pass their allocated 30 minutes on the net.
Justin wandered
into the ‘net room’ , as it was being called, one evening
and was taken
aback by the image he saw that Dwain was hastily trying to shut down.
“I
thought we had put a block on unsuitable web sites”, murmured
Justin.
“It’s
okay, Jus. That wasn’t a web site; it was just an attachment
to an email my mate has sent me”, explained
Dwain.
“Does
he send you many like that?” quizzed
Justin.
“No,
that was the first one. He did for a joke”.
A loud crashing
noise came from the lounge.
“Oh
no. Nickki is having another of her outbursts”, groaned
Justin as he dashed off to help calm the incident.
At the next staff
meeting concern was expressed about Dwain staying out late rather
a lot in the last two weeks.
“Yes,
and he’s always on his mobile, and as soon as he finishes his
nightly session on the net he is off out and not seen until 11 o’clock
and sometimes later,” said
his key worker, Leroy.
“That
reminds me”, interrupted
Justin, who went on to report on what he had found Dwain viewing on
the net during the week.
“Come
on, you lot, don’t be a gang of prudes. I bet you looked at
dirty pictures when you were growing up,” chided
Nick.
“There
is a line between getting het up over normal adolescent curiosity
and denying our responsibility to guide and protect young people as
they grow up,” observed
Sarah.
“I
think we don’t want to over-react, but I think we owe it to
Dwain to cheek things out with him. I think that the next session
Dwain spends in the net room Leroy should go in with him and ask to
view some of his emails and chat room sites, as well as trying find
out where he is spending his evenings,” proposed
Vinney.
Dwain reluctantly
agreed to this plan, as Leroy reported to Sarah.
“He’s
been posing as a 19-year-old and getting in touch with gay men, and
he’s been
spending some evenings meeting a few of them, - and he’s given
his mobile phone number to some man in London who wants to meet him.”
“He
is obviously exploring his sexual orientation but he is only 14 and
in the same way we would protect the girls from exploitation from
older men, we have a duty to step in and help Dwain,” said
Sarah.
At
the next young people’s meeting Sarah announced that it had
been decided to suspend further use of the net by young people for
the time being because some young people had been using it inappropriately.
This news was
greeted with some anger and some relief by young people, who had heard
from Dwain about his activities.
“We
are not saying it is banned forever, just that we want to explore
ways of making sure it can’t be misused,” added
Sarah.
“What
about mobile phones? Are you going to take them?” asked
Gary, who hadn’t got one.
“Shut
up, thicky”, snapped
Dwain.
“I
sometimes would like to, but unless they are used at the wrong time,
like during the night, I do not want to confiscate what is the property
of the young people who own them”.
Just then Dwain’s
mobile rang out its rocky call tune.
“Turn
it off, Dwain. This is our group meeting and outsiders are not invited,”
said
Jilly.
