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"Here you are, honey. Have a good time, learn a lot and have fun. I will be back to check on you in a few hours."
Mom closes the door and is gone in a flash, leaving Buffy all by herself again. This isn't the first time her mother has left her here on her own.
Tonight, mom is giving a dinner party, and no kids are allowed, so Buffy is once again abandoned. Dumped out on her own, Buffy is now faced with many difficult choices. She could do the responsible thing and do her reading assignment. She knows the way there all by herself because she has been deserted here by her mother before. Or she could go have fun, maybe find someone to chat with. Buffy talks to adults she does not know all the time, mostly just because she can.
All the other kids are jealous of Buffy because of all her freedom. The responsible moms are in the driver's seat, taking control of where their children go. But those kids are innocent and naïve, unlike Buffy. She has already seen pictures of naked people dozens of times, even though Buffy herself is not yet through puberty.
Danger lurks around every corner. There's a lot of peer pressure on Buffy-- and all kids today--to be sophisticated beyond their years. Colorful lights and promise of adventure entice Buffy to go through doors and enter grown-up worlds. She wants to try all the things she's seen on television and movies.
Within minutes of her mother's abandonment tonight, a full-grown man starts a conversation with Buffy. She doesn't mind. If the truth must be known, Buffy is feeling a bit lost tonight. She'd ask her mom for help, but her mother isn't very interested in this sort of thing and is busy preparing for her party. This man seems very nice and helpful, suave and sophisticated.
It's not like mom would know, or even care who Buffy talks to. Mother never asks, daughter never tells. Mom just trusts her to use the good judgment some adults lack, despite the fact that Buffy is still a child. Perhaps mom assumes her daughter won't recognize porn, be tempted by advertisements for alcohol or pressured to do drugs because Buffy is still so young.
Let's stop our story here. Is Buffy's mother endangering her child? Should she be legally accountable if something happens to Buffy?
What if Buffy were not actually in the back streets of a big city, but really just surfing the Internet unaccompanied?
If you are having trouble following my line of thinking, let me state it clearly: I believe parents who allow their children on the Internet unattended should be charged with child endangerment. In my opinion, letting your child on the Internet without an adult physically sitting next to them is the same as dropping your child off in a back alley of New York City in the middle of a winter night.
There are countless true and terrible stories about what can happen to children on the Internet. We have all heard the accounts of the sweet child who somehow hooks up with the horrible pedophile on the Net. We've also seen countless examples of how detrimental too much time spent alone on the computer can be. We certainly are endangering our children by allowing them to face these dangerous places by themselves.
I believe if your child is on the Internet right now, and you are not sitting next to them, you are guilty of child endangerment. Tell me what you think!
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