Stop blaming girls!

Although prior to reading A Girl’s Life Online I held a general idea of what the book was about, I found myself completely enthralled with reading it and could not put it down. At first, you see Katie as this very privileged but average girls, and initially I didn’t feel that much sympathy for her. Although she struggled with the same problems most young teenage girls have, her family was wealthy and she had overall seemed to have a comfortable life. As the book progressed however, I found myself feeling genuinely nervous and scared for her. Towards the end of the book, I felt complete and utter rage over how her stepdad and mother handled the situation at some points. Katie’s experience was traumatic, life-altering and horrifying and at times her family treated her terrible and tried to put the blame on her by saying things like, “feeling guilty about screwing up a man’s life?” (163). Although the book’s focus was not this aspect, I felt so enraged by it and felt like it was a good example of all the slut-shaming and victim-shaming that goes on in our society. It was absolutely NOT Katie’s fault and still, the people who should have been there to support her the most were not, which I think is a huge reason why the ordeal was so difficult on her. However, the real purpose of the book was to alert young teens and parents about how very real internet predators are. To me, I knew instinctively by reading “Mark’s” chat logs where he says things like how Katie is the most special person in the world meant that he was undoubtedly some kind of creep and pedophile but the truth is, a lot of people don’t have this same instinct. For a girl like Katie, the attention she received from Mark was something she craved so much that she overlooked all of the red flags he was sending her. I personally think that the book would be beneficial for girls to read simply for the fact that it would help them decipher red flags in the future. While I don’t think the book should be read and used as a tool to scare girls away from the Internet, I think that it being implemented as a way for people to better understand how to read people on the internet is positive. The Internet is still a really positive place for people to learn and connect, and its important to remember that its not all bad as long as you are safe and aware.

I found the Victims and Vixens article very interesting to read alongside A Girl’s Life Online. The media portrayal of cybercrime was incredibly interesting to read about, and I think a lot of very valid points were made. Specifically, I agree that a lot of time girls are marginalized in the media when it comes to these sorts of cases. The media definitely does a lot of trying to paint the girl as the guilty one since after all, she was the one to go into a chat room in the first place. This notion is ridiculous, and yet you see the media do it again and again. Furthermore, the police are definitely championed for their sting operations and for “saving” girls as the article suggested and overall, I agree that the media’s portrayal of cybercrime doesn’t necessarily bring us closer to a solution. It creates fear and anxiety among the parents of young teen girls, it marginalizes those same girls and overall, it does nothing to solve the issue. I personally think that shows like “To Catch A Predator” are exploitive and essentially make a sport out of a very real issue. Furthermore, the show creates heightened fear of the Internet, and serves as yet another way to keep girls down.