“Nevada Tan” Limited Edition Digital Print
Print Size : 210mm x 297mm
Andrea Innocent (a.k.a innocentgirl), 2007.

All images © Andrea Innocent 2005 - 2008

Saturday, June 5, 2004
Killing stokes fears over impact of Net
Reports that online feud led 11-year-old to kill
prompts calls for caution

By AKEMI NAKAMURA
Staff writer
The fatal stabbing of a sixth-grade girl by a female classmate at an 
elementary school in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, earlier this week 
was shocking enough in itself.
However, reports that the 11-year-old girl who killed Satomi Mitarai 
did so after being riled by an online exchange with the victim have 
prompted calls for the promotion of  Internet awareness -- and not just 
among children. Hirotsugu Shimoda, a professor of media studies at 
Gunma 
University, said, "I think (many) parents have not been aware 
of how dangerous cyberspace can be for children, although 
they themselves must have had unpleasant experiences."
"That's why they have few qualms in allowing their children to 
use computers and mobile phones," said Shimoda, who operates
Netizen Village, a Web site that aims to prevent children from 
coming across harmful information online.
The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 
Ministry revised its academic guidelines in 2002 to encourage 
elementary schools to provide pupils with opportunities to become
accustomed to computers and information networks. Since then, 
many public elementary schools have reinforced efforts to teach 
students in higher grades how to use the Internet to study, create 
Web sites and send e-mail.
According to a Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and 
Telecommunications Ministry survey, 61.9 percent of children 
between the ages of 6 and 12 said they had used the Internet as of 
the end of 2003. The figure was up 9.3 percentage points from a 
year earlier.

"We have instructed (schools) to also teach children such issues
as protection of privacy and copyright as well as the effects computer 
use can have on their physical and psychological health," one education
ministry official said, adding that teaching materials dealing with 
cyberspace etiquette have been distributed among teachers.
But some argue that schools and parents have failed to teach children
the rules and risks of communicating via the Internet.
Mafumi Usui, a psychology professor at Niigata Seiryo University, said 
online communication is more difficult for children than face-to-face
conversation because they are denied access to the other party's voice
tone or facial expressions.

People "write things on the Net that they would never say face to
face online arguments among children, who cannot control their emotions
(as well as adults), often become more heated more quickly," he said.