Lord of the Flies and the Internet Island

You are familiar with William Golding’s Lord  of the Flies, right?  Educated boys from “good” homes are marooned on an island and struggle to survive.  There are no adults in their space to guide their decision making, raising this critical question about human nature,  “In a place and time without rules and guidance, would you descend into the abyss of human depravity (the beast in the story) or would you rise to elevate the value of human life in the midst of trial?”  
 
What  makes this book so fascinating are the characters and the moral dilemmas they encounter.  They are all  schoolboys.  They vary in age but  by any measure they are children…kids. They are trying to survive on an island isolated from the rest of the  world.  They try to figure out what really matters in life and how best to do life. Many of the characters wrestle with how far they would go as they shape a  “new” morality.  When I first read the book I remember barely being able to finish the book because of the inevitable outcome.  
 
As I keep tabs on headlines locally and nationally, I can’t help but think we are raising a “Lord of the Flies”  generation.  With far-too-great regularity we are reading headlines about children (kids) who are left to their own devices on the internet; a virtual island without adults and we are seeing and living through the projected “Lord of the Flies” outcome.  Children are dying because of other children living out their lives without any adults to be found on the island.       
 
I can’t help but think of Cain and Abel; one who takes the high road and one who takes the low road…no parents in sight.  
 
Out of no where the adults show up in the Lord of the Flies to stave off the inevitable.  Those who take the low road have to confront the depravity they embraced.  I imagine the two young girls (ages 12 and 14) in Florida are experiencing a similar reality.  They are going to pay a heavy price for their alleged choices (role) in another child’s death.  Cain paid a heavy price for  his depravity and so too will all of those kids on the internet who embrace the beast inside each of us.  What will it take for parents to get on the internet island with their kids to save them from the depraved masses?  When are the adults going to show up to save the kids who have taken the high road? The reality is we are living in a time when more and more parents really don’t care (they say they do, but their actions don’t correlate with their words) about
their kids and have turned them over to the internet, a cyberspace island.  How close does the disaster have to be before you involve yourself in your child’s internet island?

If you have children in your home who spend time on any social sites, can I encourage you to take an ACTIVE role there?  Don’t let one more child suffer needlessly because “I thought they were a good kid.” 
  
“Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and  policemen and the law. Roger was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins.” 
William Golding, Lord of the Flies