How to Write a Good Fanfic

10.2 - Internet Safety (A Rare Subject)

Why is the subject of internet safety even a thing when most people aren't likely to write a story involving internet safety? Simply put, I was reminded of a story I reviewed about two to three years ago from when I am currently writing this where the writer did touch upon the subject yet made a bunch of factual errors. I'm reminded because the writer and I had a falling out because I couldn't get past the first 'willing suspense of disbelief' issue and they were upset I stopped reading at that point and completely missed the fact I'd have been pointing out a whole lot more of those issues had I gone on.

I mean, the topic is so rarely touched upon that there are only at the point of writing these eleven stories using the tag #internetsafety as one of the tags. Even I haven't written a story involving internet safety despite the fact I have written about others such as the treatment of special needs kids in the school system and by society, or online spamming because the topics are important to me. Mostly the subject comes up because I find a writer who isn't practicing good internet safety.

Please, if you are a minor do not s hare your real name, phone number or anything pertaining to where you live with someone online, but the only ones who should be doing that here on Wattpad are the ones who are attempting to make writing a career for themselves who are already adults. That of course is the no brainer part for everyone. What people don't realize is what can slip into your writing.

The worst case scenario – the mother thankfully grounded her daughter until she became eighteen from using the fanfic site I found her on – was a girl who had a very rare physical attribute, used her first name for the characters, gave her real birthday as the birthday for her character and included details such as hair color and other things which could easily identify her to some stranger online yet made her character go to a place she liked to frequent with her friends.

Of course, I admit I'm the reason her daughter got ground because I worded my reply when I found out the girl was self-inserting herself more towards the mom pointing out how unsafe her daughter was being and the girl made the mistake of – as I hoped – taking my reply to her mother which in turn led to her internet privileges regarding the site being revoked until she turned eighteen, but her mother made her openly admit she was grounded.

However, what if you're writing about the subject? There are a few questions which need to be asked.

Are the parents of the character the type who wouldn't be aware of what their son or daughter is doing online?

In this case of the story I mentioned the parents would have been the type to be aware of what their daughter was doing.

What is the age of the character and when does it take place?

When I first started in fanfiction I might come across a small handful of twelve year old kids who jumped the gun before signing up for a site they should be thirteen to sign up for. The child who was only ten was majorly rare. This, however, has increased somewhat, but I have also encountered someone as young as eight once which I thought I would never encounter, but that was before we had devices where the kids were more savvy than the parents and thus circumnavigated their parents watchful eyes. So...

2000 to 2010 – Mostly twelve year olds, but even then a thirteen-year-old using the net was uncommon.
2010 to 2020 – A few more ten year olds and one eight year old. Getting to use the net at age thirteen has kind of become a kind of coming of age thing.
2020 to – I expect even more of an increase as well to do schools across the country are now giving kids computers all the way into the elementary school grades.

No, the age limit should not be lowered particularly on a writing site where it is expected for the person signing up to be in the seventh or eighth grade unless they were held back and thus have that level of education in writing.

What is the characters personality?

Some people are majorly responsible for their age and some are not. What a character does will depend on that, but a character who is responsible off line will typically be responsible online unless there is some other underlying issue.

Lasty...

Do your research.

The internet isn't something new. It's been around for years, but will celebrate thirty-years come 2020 where the internet is recognizable in the form we know minus a few minor changes such as switching from HTML to other types of coding In reality it came about seven years earlier. This may not seem like a big deal to a thirteen-year-old writer, but it is for older writers like myself as it's a major headbanger.

Actually, the lack of internet in the Harry Potter books actually comes from the fact the internet came about the year before and we really didn't see kids using the internet until about 1999, and even then it was only a small handful who snuck onto the first fanfic site which was originally for those eighteen and up. It wasn't really until about 2010 that we started seeing a higher demographic of younger people.

Even now most of the people who use the web are adults, but the same goes for the sites like Wattpad.