Mixed-up media

MXit Lifestyle, which is part-owned by media giant Naspers, sent out an extraordinary press release last week in which it took broadcaster e.tv and Johannesburg daily newspaper The Star to task for “unprofessional and sensation-seeking journalism”. Both news channels blamed MXit for the (temporary) disappearance of Omar, a 14-year-old grade 9 pupil at Parktown Girls' High.

“MXit is not responsible for the disappearance of this girl,” the company says in the statement. “We want to warn all users to enjoy our technology with the necessary responsibility and level of maturity; and never to reveal personal information.”

The popular chat service, which is used by millions of SA teenagers, says it is “concerned about the ongoing misleading and inaccurate use of its name in media reports”.

Thicker skins needed?

My first thought when reading this was that MXit's managers need to grow thicker skins. After all, plenty of companies get short shrift by the tabloids. If I had a dollar for every time a computer game was blamed for a teenager's violent behaviour, I'd be rich by now. And remember the sensationalist stories about how “Satanic” heavy metal band Slipknot may have been responsible for the actions of a Krugersdorp schoolboy who murdered a classmate with a sword? Perish the thought that the teen might have been mentally unstable.

Intelligent readers tend to make up their own minds and choose the news sources they know to trust. As for the scandal sheets, they have a ready audience wanting to be served with sensationalism and gossip.

But the more thought I gave to MXit's complaint, the more I realised the company is right to feel aggrieved. Omar's parents fretted that she had been abducted by someone she met on MXit — even though there was no evidence to corroborate that claim. Suddenly, Omar became the “MXit girl” in newspaper headlines and it appeared as if the service itself was to blame for her disappearance.

Like video games, it's easy to blame MXit for society's ills. However, to do so is entirely wrong. MXit is simply a platform over which people communicate. To suggest that the platform itself is somehow “evil” is ludicrous. You can't blame technology for problems in society.

It's the parents' responsibility

Ultimately, it's up to parents to decide how their children use online services. That many parents today seem unwilling to assume the role of parenting is no fault of MXit's.

Parents who are concerned about what goes on in MXit's chat rooms should download the software themselves and use it. The same applies to other online social services, including Facebook, MySpace and Twitter That knowledge will empower them to advise their children about appropriate online behaviour and how to avoid dangerous situations.

Blaming services like MXit for society's ills is dangerous in that it makes regulators and politicians want to intervene. Two years ago Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille called for MXit to be regulated because of the “daily stories from people whose marriages have been destroyed and about children who are led into situations where they are molested by grown men, who use MXit to lure these girls and boys into their traps”. It's exactly this sort of assault on our freedom of speech that we must avoid.

I'm not sure it was the smartest PR move by MXit to issue a press release to journalists, attacking journalists. But the company is right. The media needs to be more careful in how it reports on the societal impact of new technology. The last thing the media should do is create a justification for petty bureaucrats to begin censoring and regulating human communication.

Source: Financial Mail

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