Saskatchewan Federation of Police Officers 61 supremacy, are increasingly using the Internet to recruit young people. Hate sites aimed at youth often feature music with hate lyrics to rally young people to their cause. Teens are always searching the Web for music and can easily land on sites that sell or give away hate-filled songs. The goals of hate sites are not always readily apparent. At first glance, the site martinlutherking.org would seem like a tribute to the memory of the civil rights leader. In fact it is a hate site that has been developed by a white supremacist organization that uses slander to defame him. Others will cite free speech in defence of their activities in order to promote racist attitudes and opinions. For inexperienced young people, such information on deceptive hate sites can easily be taken at face value and not fully understood. Tips for parents Parents today are up against a powerful media culture in which violence is often glamourized and the lines are often blurred between humour and hate, making it difficult for those who want to teach their children about respecting others and finding non-violent solutions to conflicts. • To address violent entertainment media, teach your kids from an early age about media violence. Young people need to learn to respect others and to respond appropriately to violence. Talk to them about real violence and its consequences, and discourage media that portray killing or pain as entertainment. For some children, viewing violence could make them more fearful or increase aggressive attitudes and behaviours, therefore it’s important to monitor their exposure to violent media. • Filters and blockers are often ineffective at protecting kids from violent or hateful content. Instead parents must help equip kids with filters in their heads so they will learn to recognize hate. Exposure to violent and hateful content Kids today live in a media culture where they are constantly exposed to violence in movies and television, video games and music.The Internet, however, is adding an entirely new dimension to the issue of media violence. Kids are exposed to a continuum of violence online ranging from sites with cruel and often racist humour, mature-rated movies and video games, real-life scenes of violence on sites likeYouTube, to gruesome images on gore sites like rotten.com. There is a culture of cruelty and violence on many Web sites favoured by young people – and boys in particular. A 2009 survey by Microsoft Canada showed 25 per cent of Canadian males, ages 9 to 17 years, visit sites that have pictures or videos showing violent acts, fighting or racist content. A lot of the violent and hateful content online is usercreated. For example, a recent trend has seen students staging physical assaults offline, so they can film the incidents and then upload the video to sites likeYouTube. (While YouTube has been criticized for allowing violent videos, the sheer volume of files being uploaded to the site means it relies mainly on their users to monitor content and flag videos that violate its "Community Guidelines.") On the popular eBaum’s World and Newgrounds sites, the jokes, Flash games, animations and photos are largely contributed by users. This content is often violent and demeaning and sometimes crosses the line to racist and hateful. For example in the Immigration game on eBaum’s World, Hispanics are depicted as illegal immigrants in a racist cartoon style. It is not hard to understand how some impressionable young people can go from sites that use cruel humour to mock others, to more dangerous sites that promote violence against ethnic minority groups or homosexuals. Hate groups, like the ones campaigning for white VIOLENT AND HATEFUL CONTENT continued on page 63... www.bewebaware.ca
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