HW 17: Miss America

After browsing through many of the recent posts on Jezebel, I came across one particular post that struck me quickly in many ways. The post was labeled "Miss America: Busty, Bikini-Clad Internet Policebabe", found on http://jezebel.com/gossip/kids-play/miss-america-busty-bikini+clad-internet-policebabe-306729.php. I was intrigued by this blog because it relates directly to my semester-long research paper topic of "how the Internet is harmful to young teens". This blog described the new website that was just created by the Miss America Organization who came together with the Children's Educational Network in efforts to have a kid-friendly Internet browser that will protect children from the "dangers" of the Internet such as inappropriate sites and online predators. As described in the blog, the Miss America Kid-Safe Web Browser offers standard security and blocking mechanisms, only allowing the kids to view 10,318 websites out of the billions of sites on the Internet. Besides blocking kids from inappropriate sites, the website has some bizarre features as well. Some of them include Miss America, Lauren Nelson, popping up and walking across the screen every few minutes with a trivia question, Miss America reading your e-mails out loud for you, the ability to program Miss America to remind you of chores and homework that needs to be done, and if a kid is denied access to a specific site that may be inappropriate Miss America tells the child to go ask Mom or Dad first. I found this to be somewhat silly, yet I can see many young children along with their parents taking advantage of this new website. Many young girls and boys idolize pop-stars and celebrities, such as Miss America, and will find this website "hip" and "cool". Though Jezebel seems to disagree and finds this new web browser somewhat foolish. "We actually maintain that aspiring to a specific beauty standard in which you walk across a stage in a swimsuit and heels might actually be more dangerous to little girls, psychologically at least, than accidentally running across amateur porn online, but we digress." Jezebel makes a valid point, yet I believe this new web browser will keep kids safe while on the Internet and free from viewing "Miss America" in what might just be high heels and nothing else...