As I see it, it's the American media that has conditioned people to think that any interaction between an adult and a child not related to them is suspect.
This is terribly sad. When I was 14, I would have loved to be able to talk to a real scientist.
Why do you immediately assume that an aspect of our culture comes from "conditioning" by the "the American media"?
I think the main reason for it is this: for the most part it's difficult to form close friendships with people significantly different from you in age (14 year olds and 28 year olds really don't have that much in common) so people tend to assume that if they're talking too much then there must be something creepy going on... or at least that they just can't find friends their own age.
I'm a "real scientist". Why would I want to talk to a 14-year-old?
When I was 14 I would have loved to talk to a real scientist. I loved science and technology but my educational access to any sort of professional was extremely limited. One of my most memorable High School teachers taught Chemistry. But during the summers he did real research. He was passionate both about Chemistry and teaching. He touched a lot of lives for the better. Many of his students went on to study in the sciences in college and beyond.
There are a lot of bright inquisitive 14-year-olds out there who could really benefit from access to "real scientists". If you have any inclination towards teaching you might even get something out of it yourself!
I was trying to ask a question, not make an assumption. Sorry if my phrasing was inept.
I lived in America for five years and I noticed that the fear-mongering was much more pervasive there, compared to Australia, where I grew up, and especially to Holland, where I live now.
I'm a scientist too. I love talking to kids about science. Their enthusiasm rubs off on me. I'm not looking to become friends with them though. Can't we distinguish between interaction and friendship?
"Can't we distinguish between interaction and friendship?"
The point of the article is that this distinction is very much blurred in the online world.
We have networks that support all kinds of social interaction, but we call the act of establishing interaction "friending" someone. Well, what does that mean? That you're going to spend all your time chatting about science? Or that you're talking about where the cool parties are.
The original article mentioned that the author checked out a young lady's blog after she sent him a friend request, and quickly found out more than he wanted to know about her personal life. I think that reflects different expectations of boundaries and privacy, even between 31 and 20 year olds.
Coincidentally I'm also a scientist who was brought up in Australia and has spent the last two and a half years in the US, so I can see we're coming at it from similar perspectives.
And actually I don't think that fearmongering (especially about pedophilia) is any more prominent in the US than in Australia, though I can't commend on Holland, where I wouldn't be surprised if it's less (since it's over-the-top in both Australia and the US).
You're right, if we distinguish between interaction and friendship there's nothing creepy about a 14-year-old interacting with a grown scientist. I may have misinterpreted your original comment.
Can't we distinguish between interaction and friendship?
I think that one of the benefits of the online world is that such distinguishing can be decided based on context rather than enforced by offline societal pressures. We don't need to fully throw out the old responses, because there is a grain of truth in their formation. But neither do we need to bring them wholesale into this new medium.
This is terribly sad. When I was 14, I would have loved to be able to talk to a real scientist.
Is this exclusively an American problem?