Geni, you (and others) seem to place a lot of stock in "parent
responsibility":
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-November/056095.html
Work with me for a moment here... if a parent takes her 9-year-old boy to
the toy boutique, and the boy asks to stay outside on the sidewalk with the
pantomime clown the store has hired to promote their business, and the mom
says "okay", goes inside, then the boy wanders down the sidewalk a bit to
look at the window display of toy trains, but is then abducted by a
stranger, raped, mutilated, and dumped in the woods, that is the
responsibility of the parent? The consequences are entirely her fault for
leaving the kid alone with the clown? Nobody else holds any responsibility
whatsoever in that event?
Are you saying that it's more important that the mime stay in character and
not use either his own common sense or courtesy, or perhaps follow
instructions or guidelines that have been conferred on him by either the
store or his entertainment company employer to say, "Please don't leave your
child unattended with me, ma'am. Liability, you know?"
What you seem to be saying is that the Wikimedia Foundation should expressly
not apply any effort whatsoever to these sorts of liability and "worst case"
assessments, because in the end, it's the parent's responsibility. I'm
curious to know -- do you have any children of your own? If the above
happened to your child, how would you feel if you later discovered that the
mime's employer had actually had a conversation about whether mime's should
offer verbal safety advice to parents who seem a bit lax in tending to their
children, but the management expressly decided that
"WP:MIMESWILLSTAYSILENT", and that it's the parent's responsibility if
they
leave their kid unattended with a clown? Do you think you or your lawyer
might want to have a few words with the management of Clowns Incorporated,
or is the higher principal of "free mime culture" more important than any
considerations of safety, law, and common courtesy?
I wonder about the addled nature of thought here, if people think that the
Foundation cannot and should not find within its means to even formulate
some recommendations and guidelines to help steer the activities of children
on Wikimedia projects, because that is something that parents alone should
be doing on a case-by-case basis. Your response to Privatemusings could
have been just as easily delivered with a big "F* you, get the f* off our
mailing list".
Geni said that appropriate and adequate measures are in place on Foundation
projects, but he/she provided no links. Does anyone have a link or two to
provide us, the concerned parents whose kids are starting to use the
Internet on their own?
Gregory Kohs