Having the internet at Scout camps isn't just for the home-sick

There has been a bit of a brouhaha about the fact that Scouts celebrating the centenary of the first camp run by Baden-Powell were made to eat veggie burgers rather than risk offending any people with special dietary requirements.

In fact, the perennial war-cry of "It's political correctness gone mad" can be heard across the land.

"If this is true this country is garbage for putting up with this P.C. Rubbish" - Will Smith, Medway England on the Daily Mail site.

"Oh, for goodness sake. I am so fed up of hearing about all this PC drivel" - A. M., Dorset on the Daily Mail site.

"We have committed intellectual suicide and are now murdering our history and heritage. We no longer deserve to survive as a nation." - P Watson, Shaftesbury on the Daily Mail site.

"This is absolutely ridiculous! I do believe that the PC stupidity in the UK is absolutely barking mad. It defies belief and words." - Charles, Durham, NC on the Daily Mail site.

"This is dreadful! This country is going to the dogs. Lord Baden Powell will be turning in his grave." - Isabel, Buckinghamshire on the Daily Mail site.

And who can blame people for complaining?

I mean, who wouldn't think it was a healthy normal British activity to force-feed non-kosher, non-halal, mechanically-recovered beef to Jewish, Islamic and Hindu kids against their parents wishes as part of a camp to celebrate the global nature of the Scouting movement?

Much of the wailing and gnashing of teeth has been directed at the generation gap between what kids do today and what the Scouts of yesteryear got up to.

But one paragraph in the Daily Mail's article from where I swiped those "PC gone mad" quotes made me think of an entirely different generation gap. Namely the gap between journalists in their 20's / 30's / 40's writing about a generation of children who have only ever known an online world. Luke Salkfield wrote:

"There is also an Internet cafe set up with ten lap-top computers to allow home-sick youngsters to keep in touch with their families around the globe."

He seems to imply that the principal reason a Scout could have to go online during a camp would be to get in touch with their family because they are home-sick.

I, on the other hand, would wager that those laptops are quite in demand at the camp, with kids who are simply just used to being socially connected online at all times.

They must be desperate to instant message their friends back home to tell them what a great time they are having, update their MySpace / Facebook / Bebo profiles, check the latest Doctor Who / football / hip-hop / celeb gossip, and do all of the the other myriad of online activities that are fun for teens and tweens to do.

Having the internet at Scout camps isn't just for the home-sick, I'm sure.