Last night's episode of Noypi was interesting: it was about the flourishing TV-chat and texting habits of teenagers. Note: you know you're getting old when you don't know what EB, PM, ASL, and SEB means (my mom didn't, hehe). Well anyway.

The thing about social experiments is that you KNOW they exist in real life, you KNOW that it really happens, but seeing it on TV like that still shocks the hell out of you. I guess it's all about perspective: we are usually too close to see properly. And it's like watching a video of yourself: you see details you didn't notice when you were in the picture. One part of the social experiment caught my attention in particular.

I have a friend who used to participate in TV-chats, so hearing about the out-and-out fishing for SEBs did not really surprise me, I knew long ago that it exists. But it hit me just last night that there are actual kids being drawn into that show, kids who probably didn't know any better, kids who've barely even lived. And then there are the predators. Last night, a fourteen-year-old girl posed as a TV-chat participant to see, well, what would happen. Almost right away, someone sent her a message and said "I've got a place", which, come to think of it, wasn't new to me anymore (this is what I get from watching too much of Grey's Anatomy). And in a twisted sort of way, it could actually be considered the "lesser evil", compared to the other guy who showed an "interest".

The guy arranged to meet the girl, and from the beginning, I could tell that the had something else in mind other than the kwentuhan he said he wants. I'm no freaking teenager, I've seen it all before--he can't fool me. But there are teenagers out there, girls who as I've said above, didn't know any better. Girls that predators like him could cajole and coerce and scare into getting in a room and spread out their legs. He's freaking 25 years old, for chrissakes, he knew better. It's not right that guys like that loser gets the upperhand.

Anyway, the guy almost tricked (he was really kind of forceful and used all the old tactics in the book: appealing to conscience, phony anger, sweet-talking, you name it) the fourteen-year-old girl into getting in some kind of motel, he even paid up already. Had it not been an experiment, this pervert would've been successful in getting in some young girl's pants. It's pathetic that he has to take advantage just to get a lay, really. And it's scary that there are probably thousands of guys like him out there.

I'm not naive, I know that SEBs happen all the time. Sometimes girls even initiate it. But it's one thing to engage in a sexual escapade with someone who is at least of age--those who know what they are getting into--and it's another to grab your chance because you know that you could easily overpower her. That's why there's such a thing called statutory rape. These girls, they're.. kids. All throughout the show all I could think of was "give her an effing chance". Give her a chance to live, give her a chance to grow old enough and mature enough to make that kind of decision. Coz once someone gets in there and takes it, there's no going back.

I wish there was some kind of painful instrument which I could use to cut off the thingies of these kind of scum. I'd hate to think of my daughter getting out into the world with those kinds of people.

Too affected, sorry. :)