An Era Of Camgirls

I find Theresa M. Senft's book "Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social Network," to be very informative. In fact, it is a real eye opener for parents to have a better understanding of the kind of online activities their daughters are engaged in. As our society navigates its way along this digital information technology highway, women under the age of forty, and teenage children are both in the driving seat, and they are feeling quite comfortable to venture into new territories, in ways they see fit. While “most camgirls broadcast in silence, still images, women on cam-house sites were usually featured in streaming format – that is, with full motion audio and video” (41). Some teenagers have moved on from their fixation on "Web-cammng" as a means of taking pictures of themselves, to downloading them on the internet for the public to see. Is this the new sign of the times?

This new style of online performance which Senft called “micro-celebrity,” empowers people to broadcast themselves by both text and video over the Web by using technologies such as live journal, my space, and other social networking sites. However, in their quest for micro-celebrity status, it is not uncommon for people to link camgirls with JenniCam, and voyeurism. Senft defines voyeurism as “a sexual fetish in which an unseen viewer spies on an unsuspecting body that is naked, in the process of disrobing, or engaging in sexual activity”(45). Senft did a good job in making a clear distinction between voyeurism which is mostly simulated voyeurism as opposed to camgirls whose online activities are raw and personal, uncensored and unedited. It is human nature for people to paint certain issues with a broad brush, and so they associate the word "voyeur" in a more broader sense than it was intended to be.

We are living in a very free society and are guaranteed freedom of speech. Thus, when women choose to display their activities on the Web, they are exercising their constitutional rights to do so. However, women should not cross certain boundaries in terms of nudity, and vulgarity because the internet is accessible to everyone including young children and teenagers. Teenagers can be naive and they would try to imitate certain things they see on television. Young teenagers do not need another excuse to help them to justify any inappropriate activity. In chapter four, Senft talks about “the public, the private, and the pornographic” (77) in which Company Girls, Independents, and Porn House Girls, have all taken their sensual online activities to a more graphic level.

The question I have for the author is: Are there any safeguard measures in place that can serve as a protection against online predators for young teenagers? Do young teenagers really need unsupervised use of a computer and web cam in their room? How can parents effectively monitor their young daughter’s online activities? Our youths need to find other ways of using the internet to make money, to define their individuality, or become a micro-celebrity.

Adolescent girls do not deserve to lose their innocence at so early an age, simply by surfing the internet.