A few thoughts…

…not locked, or under a cut. Consider this an “open letter” to Livejournal and all my friends here.

To be honest…I’m still sorting out my feelings about this whole affair. But I can state up front what I, at least, am not doing. I’m not locking down my entire journal, or blum_community. (If that means you want to un-friend me rather than have your comments visible anywhere on lj, well, that’s your option. Let me know.) I’m not editing my interests list. I took a look at it, and there’s really nothing in there that -I- think poses any danger to kids (or anybody else), although I recently went ahead and added a couple of interests that might raise an eyebrow. Or maybe not. But I’ve been involved with alternative communities for too long–just about my entire life–to be easily intimidated. Being so public for so long in the Pagan, glbt and vampiric communities, never hiding my real name, never backing down from bigotry, prejudice, or hatred in any form, has made me rather crusty. As far as I’m concerned: they can come and get me! And they’ll have to, before I’ll knuckle under to someone else’s oppression. I’m a publisher, if I don’t stick up for free speech, I may as well toss it in now. I just upgraded to a paid account, on the premise that if I was going to use lj (among other venues) to connect with potential friends, writers, and customers for my publishing company, it made sense to have more options available.

The major issue appears to have erupted over Livejournal, not necessarily any watchdog groups, tagging “in.ce.st” and “ra.pe” as deletable code words. That surely is drastically erring on the side of caution. There’s no comparison between those single words, which can have many connotations (heck, I can see my former supervisor, who counseled abuse survivors, having those words in her interests list!), and things like “[vulgarism for intercourse]-ing [word for young person under the age of 10]”. It’s one thing to pay attention to questionable content. But deleting users just because they include isolated words in their interest lists or descriptions is McCarthyism at its worst.

Children are harmed, not helped, by over-protection. If there are “predators” on the Internet, I’d much rather have them in plain sight where I can keep an eye on them. As has been pointed out, now the real pedophiles will just go further underground and refine or change their methods. The best armor we can give children–and everyone–against victimization is knowledge, experience and education. So-called “innocence” is neither blissful nor virtuous; it’s a weakness and a vulnerability. Children, like all of us, are safer for being the wiser.

I did some checking on this group that’s been on lj’s tail. They certainly don’t have the same courage of their convictions as I do. I have absolutely no respect for people who hide their own identities while working relentlessly to harass, defame and harm others (no matter what rationalization they use to justify and excuse their behavior). I think there’s a word for people like that (aside from “cowards”)…”terrorists.” After all…suicide bombers completely believe in their missions, too. Any militant Palestinian or Iraqi can invoke dead babies and children, and state that they, also, are acting to protect the young. Crusades are unbalanced by definition, and mere fervency of belief doesn’t make your cause right.

Perhaps Livejournal should ask itself why it is conceding to the demands of terrorists. But I’m not about to hand over my freedoms to the terrorists. They’re going to have to come and get them.