The state of things.

So, day one. Or, as a formerly popular reality show would have it, 'dee wun'. And here's the first thing about me.

I've created a blog, and I haven't really got anything to say. Keep reading, folks!

Well, here's the opportunity to introduce myself. My name's Joe, I'm a 21 year old student who's just about a third of the way through a placement year, which means I'm one of those rare student specimen who get up early every day, actually do some work, and spend no time in the pub. I still wish I was the other kind of student. To that end, I still haven't passed my second year, perhaps out of incompetence, but I prefer to think of it as holding onto the life I had last year. You know, bed, beer and bad exam results.

I love my music. I'm not one of these people who pigeon-hole their music tastes. I used to like anything that demonstrates talent, but then Muse came along, and for all their undoubted brilliance, I fucking hate them. As a guitarist, it used to be only bands who used guitars, but then I started playing the piano. So, I've given up on trying to define my taste in music, and will instead just list a couple of bands who are rocking my world this week. You get judged too much on your music taste anyway.

Okay, now for something meaningful. There's an enormous amount of criticism of sites like this, or more accurately, Facebook and MySpace, with parents angered that their kids can interact with complete strangers and display all of their personal information. Let me share an opinion.

There are such things as parental controls. Parental controls come in two forms - the first being the setup on the computer limiting access to certain sites and certain types of site. Take a little time to set it up, because at the end of the day, stopping your child from visiting certain types of website will give them a bit more protection. Parental control also means...yes, that's right. Taking responsibility for your child. If you don't want them using Facebook, give them an alternative. Let them see their friends. But don't start spoiling everyone else's freedom of speech because you didn't take the time to make sure your little girl wasn't talking to some sex beast.

Unfortunately, this is the situation today. Keep your kids in, and they wind up becoming recluses, spending their entire time on BookFace or their Zboxes, or they can go out and join a gang, selling drugs to even younger toddlers and engaging in happy slappings with 7 year olds. Or...you could take a fucking interest in what they're doing. Then, maybe, they wouldn't feel the need to not tell you what they got up to when they went to the mall, or who's coming over to tea next week.