Every year when the fourth rolls around we know what we can expect from local broadcasts: fireworks safety.

How many times have we all seen the video where the dummy of the little girl is engulfed in flames mere seconds after lighting a sparkler? And how many times has that actually happened? Is the truth that we are much more concerned with dangers we can actively see—that present themselves to us in glaring, physical form—even if they aren’t the most worrisome dangers around us?

Therein lies one of the central problem in emphasizing Internet safety—everything that we encounter through the internet appears virtual, even though deep down we know that the pictures and avatars we interact with are real people in digital skin. Just as it is easier to watch the conduct of a war from our living room than it is to watch from the sides of the battlefield, threats seem less immediate and worrisome when they manifest through pixels.

But as any Gazelle will tell you, it’s the lioness that you don’t see that you need to be worried about. It’s the threats that seem less immediate that causes us to drop our guard, even though we know they are out there. Our sense of physical immediacy is often what overrides our common sense when it comes to onscreen threats. For instance, I seriously doubt that 46% of parents with teens would take their kids to a strip-club, yet that’s the number of households that don’t use any kind of internet filtering. Both venues provide access to the same imagery.

Of course what the Internet has that a strip club doesn’t is, well, everything else. It is the greatest entertainment medium in history, as well as being the world’s largest store, advice column, and meeting place. It is far more powerful and influential than likely any of us realize. And for these reasons we all need to take it a little more seriously.

Filed under: Internet Safety News