It’s come to this: dad pays teenage daughter $200 to quit Facebook

A writer at CNET takes note:

If there’s one thing young people truly understand, it’s bribery.

From their very formative years, parents bribed them to keep quiet, behave, wear appropriate clothing — even, sometimes, desist from using rude words.

So it might seem utterly canny of Paul Baier, the vice president of a Massachusetts energy company, to find a veteran’s method to get his daughter away from Facebook.

But this tale isn’t quite so simple.

I am grateful to Daily Dot for revealing that Baier made 14-year-old Rachel sign a Facebook Deactivation Agreement, which he then posted to his own blog.

What’s deeply moving is that this blog’s usual purpose is to offer deep discussions about sustainability.

This makes one wonder just how much sustainability Rachel will have.

Despite signing away the next five months of her life to be Facebook-free, the temptations upon her will be great.

Her friends may shun her. She may suddenly be regarded as not cool enough for school. This is enormous pressure to put on one at such a tender stage of her development.

Yet her signature — in abnormally neat handwriting for a contemporary 14-year-old — is there for all to see.

What is also there for all to see is that she intends to use the $200 in order to buy “stuff.”

Check out the rest.