One of the most amazing things about the Internet is the sheer number of sick perverts you can find on-line, if you only know where to look. On the other hand, who says you need to get on-line to find these sickos? I once found myself sitting right next to one in a Katipunan Internet caf�.
Chatting away at the terminal next to mine, "Fokker" seemed like any other websurfer in the caf�. But a chance glance at the content of his chat window gave me a shock. He was using very explicit words to describe to a "little girl" her role in his pedophiliac fantasy. Of course, I doubt it was a real "little girl" on the other end, but the principle was twisted enough. I was shocked that he was not only doing this in as public a place as a Net caf�, but also nonchalantly, so that his activity was plainly visible to many other people, not just incidental over-the-shoulder voyeurs like myself. I don�t know if it was desperation, lack of imagination, or exhibitionism which drove him to public, interactive, textual sex; but what really struck me was that "Fokker" could easily have been any student walking the halls of our school.
The Internet is coming to Ateneo; in fact, it is already here. How easy it will be, I thought, for people to log onto any "hot" site and have a go at relieving their deep, dark desires, insensitive of those who might see, those who might be offended.
It reminds me of the time I spotted one desk-bound member of the Rizal library staff on his computer in what used to be the microfilm section, monitor displaying a raunchy swimsuit model pinup from the Net. It�s no wonder that, with this supposed authority figure liberally flaunting his own dirty pictures, students feel just as free to engage in pornographic past-times on-line.
It�s no secret that the Internet is home to some of the most ribald material ever to be seen in human history since the Kama Sutra. The sheer volume of on-line smut no longer surprises me, but that doesn�t mean I find it any less disgusting. Of course, not everyone shares my view on that, and we�re likely to see more people taking advantage of Internet pornography as the number of terminals on campus multiplies.
I am against censorship on the Internet, and I don�t see the usefulness of an "Internet scout" any more than I see the usefulness of "PDA police." But we are being raised in a Jesuit school; ideally we should be instilled with Christian values. And it doesn�t take years of Jesuit education to tell us that pornography -- public or private, digital or otherwise -- is wrong.
I know that a lot of people will call me an over-conservative killjoy for my views, if only because they eagerly await their chance to hop onto the bandwagon of vulgar hedonism that the Internet generously provides. I can only respond with this: The School has provided us with the Internet facility to enhance our learning and growth in the values we are supposed to have integrated -- not to give us a high-tech playground for libertine abuse.