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Posted 04.08.08 PBS film examines online lives of Morris teens By Vidya Padmanabhan Originally published in the DAILY RECORD, Sunday, January 13, 2008 CHATHAM -- Behind the brick-and-mortar fortifications of Morris County's suburban homes rises another layer of defense -- a virtual one -- erected to keep parents at bay. The PBS "Frontline" documentary, "Growing Up Online," scheduled to air Jan. 22, enters homes and schools in Morris County and examines this digital divide. It finds a generation that lives in an online world to which adults are denied access. Brave new world Once, school was the only private realm children had. Now, "they're able to communicate with their friends and have an entire social life outside of the purview of their parents without actually having to leave the house," a scholar from University of California, Berkeley's Digital Youth Project says on the film. Producer Rachel Dretzin chose Morris County to shoot her film because she was attracted to the socioeconomic and racial diversity that existed in its suburbs, she said recently. It also may have something to do with the possibility that most children in the relatively wealthy county have access to a computer, said Chatham High School junior Tory Skinner, one of the subjects of the film. 'Profound shift' Dretzin was led to the topic by her previous film, "A Hidden Life," which examined the story of Spokane, Wash. Mayor Jim West, who was sought out in a gay Internet chat room by a newspaper reporter posing as a 17-year-old boy. The episode ended West's career in public office. That story started Dretzin thinking. Subsequent conversations with friends and family on the online lives of teenagers revealed that "there was a profound shift going on," Dretzin said. As she scouted for a location, she found that several local schools, including Chatham High School and Morristown High School, where she filmed, were willing to be open on the subject, she said. She spent several hours talking to focus groups in schools, mining ideas and getting students and staff used to the presence of the producers before actually filming, she said. She remained on location, interviewing and filming, for nearly seven months, she said. 'Autumn Edows' One of the stories traces the online birth of the goth artist and model, Autumn Edows, known to her parents and classmates in Madison as Jessica Hunter. "I never fit the mold," she says in the film, in eggshell-white makeup, with a pierced lip and hair dyed inky-black. Childhood pictures show a chubby redhead looking shyly at the camera. "I would try and try and it ... just wasn't me. I was constantly being made fun of," Jessica Hunter says. She felt like an alien growing up in Madison, a place she calls an "all white bread town" in the film. Hunter reinvented herself online, unbeknownst to her parents, taking pictures of herself in various costumes and artfully applied makeup. Her parents were clued in only when her school's principal called to let them know that another parent had come across Jessica Hunter's Web site and complained that it contained "pornographic" material. "I had no idea what she was doing -- no idea what was going on the Internet," Jessica's father, Rob Hunter, says in the film. "That was a big surprise." Though they initially made Jessica take down her Web site, they relented when Jessica put it up again. "She found a world she could live in," Rob Hunter says in the film. It didn't require a lot of courage to speak on camera about the intimate dynamics in his family, Hunter said recently, though he did express relief when he was assured that his family had been treated sympathetically in the film. (The subjects will see the film only when it airs on Jan. 22.) When the filmmakers approached him, he had already decided to be outspoken about the issues his family had to confront, he said. "Jessica wasn't getting support in the real world," he said. "She recreated herself on the Internet. It gave her some kind of control. It really saved her life. In that respect, that's why we gave her the latitude we did." The photographs, in retrospect, were far from "pornographic," as the other parent had made them out to be, he said. "There was nothing there I had not seen on any other magazines," such as the Vogue magazines his wife brought home, he said. Regarding the Internet access that he and his wife had allowed Jessica Hunter to have, he said he was pleased she had drawn something positive from a medium that could offer both good and bad influences. Jessica Hunter now goes to County College of Morris, where she studies photography, but plans to take courses in graphic art and Web site design, he said. Focus on families The inner workings of families, usually hidden behind closed doors, come in for some intense examination in the film. Evan Skinner, past-president of the Chatham High School PTO, is candid in the film about her struggles to break through her children' online bulwarks. "I remember being 11. I remember being 16. I remember being 16, and I remember having secrets," she says. "But it's really hard when it's the other side." Her daughter, Tory, is among several outspoken children stoutly defending their plugged-in way of life from adults who would seek to monitor it. "I'd rather not use our computer and just use it at my friend's house than have my mom go into my personal things and my private life and take charge of it," Tory says in the film. "It's my own stuff." The producers' "laidback" approach was very helpful in helping her relax and speak on camera, Tory said recently. "It's really weird at first -- you're scared that everything you're saying is being taken out of context," she said. But the producers had taken the time to get to know their subjects, even visiting their homes for dinner, Tory and her friend, Liz Helfrich, who also appears in the film, said. As for growing up online, it's a fact of life, Tory said. "It's how we live now," she said. |
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