Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative

Even when it comes to static photographs, the mainstream editing software is not available to the common multimedia enthusiast without a considerable price. Adobe Photoshop is one of the most widely-used photo-editing programs ever written. Unfortunately, at a price tag of $649, it is far from a reasonable range for the average person's budget. Those of us who are forced to do things the über-cheap way must find alternate means, among which are peer-to-peer clients such as Bittorrent. Although Bittorrent has grown as an extremely efficient means of distributing products across a wide audience with companies, artists, and individuals, it has also become the method of downloading the more frowned-upon media, including the types of movies, music, video games, and operating systems on which one would normally spend hundreds of dollars. Using such programs to download music files is considered the norm inside most Internet communities, and the use is even encouraged in places such as downhillbattle.org (where they claim that the major record labels are corrupting the music industry with their monopoly, which can only be overcome with file sharing networks).

Online multi-player video games are, contrary to common belief, very social atmospheres where players get to know one another personally. Gamers often group together in clans or guilds to play alongside each other on a regular basis. I've spoken to forty-year-olds with wives and children who still cut out a half-hour each day to play a World War II-based shooting game. One of the greatest aspects of these groups is that no one sees what the other people look like, but they respect each other nonetheless. These guys could have completely different backgrounds, different ethnicities, and totally different religions, but all of these variables dissolve when you are shooting virtual enemies as a team. Clans and guilds are microcosms of the business world in that people must learn to work together to achieve goals systematically.

As for sharing personal information with people whom you have never seen face to face, I believe that you would be revealing to them no more by telling them your real name than they could already acquire with a free tracking program. If you are connected to a person using an instant messaging program or voice communication software, they can acquire your Internet Protocol address, a series of numbers separated by decimals specific to your computer during your online session, that can be plugged into a free program that will track your location, accurate to the street you live on. I have no worries about revealing my name on the Internet, as I believe it is not security-threatening.

A recurrent misconception among parents is that violent video games lead to violent behavior. In my opinion, these video games only affect children with already-violent tendencies by giving them new ideas. Kids who understand the difference between reality and an arcade game are not more likely to commit serious crimes. Only those who see nothing wrong with seriously injuring another person should not be allowed to play such games, as they give the rest of us a lot of grief from our parents.

The majority of school research is done on the Internet because of its massive size and simple use. Rather than toiling in a library, cataloging facts and statistics from numerous hardback books, one can use a good search engine and cut his or her time in half. Because of the simplicity of publishing information online, there will always be a lot of incorrect data to be confused with fact. To avoid this problem, one can use a trusted website to research. For instance, if you see inappropriate advertisements on a supposedly accurate web page, you may want to rethink your sources.

I believe that I use the Internet to become more involved in making the world a more enjoyable place by continually learning every time I get on the computer. Since fifth grade, I have had an interest in HTML and web projects. Now I have a firm grasp of Javascript and Actionscript—two programming languages—and I am learning the server-side language of PHP, Hypertext Preprocessor. I am usually the one on whom my family members call if they are having computer troubles, and this has given me a role in the community that I enjoy holding very much. Being capable of solving other people's problems enriches me with a sense of hope for my future.

In eighth grade, I was in charge of assembling my tight-knit class's eighth-grade video, reflecting the past nine years of forty-six people's lives. I went through the pictures and picked out the best ones, putting them together in a slideshow of our prime years of childhood. It was during the presentation on graduation day, while my classmates laughed at each other and cried like beasts, that I realized how important a role I had earned in my school. I wasn't just the boy who wasted most of his time on the computer, but the person in charge of leaving a lasting impression of our favorite times in my best friends' minds. It was the highlight of my grade-school career.
In summary, digital media can shape a person's life, whether by reminding us of the past experiences or by throwing us in jail for copyright infringement. Media is accessible to anyone who searches hard enough for it; it is whether or not the user wants to take the risk of downloading it that makes all the difference.

Chris F. attends school in Louisville, Kentucky. He spends most of his time learning how to use the computers more efficiently. This essay was a finalist in the 2006 Global Kids Digital Media Essay Contest. For more information, please visit GlobalKids.org. (btw, “H4x0r” is slang for “hacker”)