Cyber-Predators Research Paper

Finally, there is nothing easier or faster than making connections with someone who you knew long time ago through social media. Many social media sites are being created regularly that allow people to connect and interact over the Internet. However, the advancement of today’s social media has also increased the activities of pedophiles due to the communication that social media allows. Online predators have gained access to youngsters, ever since people started using social media extensively. According to Fox News, “The world’s largest pro-pedophilia advocacy group uses Facebook to connect with its members throughout the world; to find and exchange photos of children; to hone its members' predatory behaviour; and to identify,

Even with the dangerous developments in social media over the past several years, many parents have chosen to allow their children to use these sites despite age restrictions. There are three reasons to argue for age restrictions on social media sites: lack of supervision by parents, targeting of children by pedophiles, and the prevalence of children falsifying their age. The ability of pedophiles to conceivably target children with social media proves that this is an issue that parents need to examine so that they may better protect their children. The threat from pedophiles causes an enormous problem for millions of children on social media sites. Unfortunately, Western Daily Press states that “Pedophiles can get away with grooming young teenagers on social media sites.” My essay will argue that age restrictions need to be in place, and additional regulations should ensure that law enforcement agencies have the tools required to supervise underage children 's use of social media, including Facebook and Twitter. Quoting from Business Wire, “three out of four parents feel that social network sites are not protecting children.” According to Irish Independent, “four out of ten children falsify their age” when using social media. I will also argue that additional research on this topic can be used to raise the awareness of parents, and can also help to alert the children themselves to the danger. My essay will also examine questions, such as: How can social media sites protect

Online predators and Stalkers can easily gain access to social media users’ personal information by either requesting to be a user’s friend or simply finding a way around the user's privacy settings. According to June Ahn, chat rooms are public and is an unmonitored space where online predators are more likely to be. “Adolescents are less likely to be targeted for unwanted sexual solicitation in social media than chat rooms.”(Ahn, June) I have found that, 412 adolescents were more likely to talk with strangers. This is hazardous for young children and adolescents because their lack of life experience leads them to blindly accept all friend request. The effort to seem popular by having many friends online can damage credibility and truth worthiness.

It is not uncommon for someone to exaggerate the truth or to leave out facts about themselves on the web. In fact, you may even find that the person you thought you knew on the internet is nothing like their profiles in real life. Whether it is to stand out in the crowd or to fool someone into thinking you are someone else entirely, you should not believe everything you see or read online. With photo enhancements, little white lies, and the scam termed catfishing, you just never really know who you are talking to or what their intentions are. Michele Fleming and Debra Rickwood, authors of “Teens in Cyberspace”, determine that parents and the public share the concern of teens encountering predators and pedophiles on the internet and could lead to inappropriate relationships on and off the web. The young generation typically communicates with peers and people close in age, however, Fleming and Rickwood advise “Even though many teens appear Net-savvy, they still need to be reminded of the potential dangers lurking online. There may be many friends in cyberspace but there are undoubtedly a number of

Coben states the dangers, “First, we’ve all heard about the young boy unknowingly conversing with a pedophile.” You may hear that an internet predator approached or kidnapped a child on the news, but as a parent you will assume its not happening to your child. Kids, teenagers, and their parents can’t tell an internet predators until it's too late. According to Pure-sight, “ 100 percent of the cases, teens that are the victims of sexual predators have gone willingly to meet with them. Also teens are willing to meet with strangers: 16 percent of teens considered meeting someone they've only talked to online and 8 percent have actually met someone they only knew online”

Cyberbullying is the biggest cyber crime among all ages, that said it’s because the bullies use social media for to hide their true identity behind a screen. Cyberbullying on social media is everywhere, but on facebook 84.2% was reported, along with instagram reporting with a 23.4%, where 35% of the cyberbullying was in the form of sending mean messages and threats through instant messaging(“Cyberbullying…”). In which cyberbullying has led to find that 20% of respondents reported seriously think of attempting suicide, where as though those who are victims of cyberbullying that reported were twice as likely to attempt suicide compared to the youth that has not experienced cyberbullying (Hinduja). Among with cyberbullying victims are sex trafficking victims. Most sex trafficking victims are gullible children found online, where most of them are advertised and sold online, according to a U.S. Senate subcommittee report in 2017. The National Center for Missing Children and Exploited Children has said that more than 70% of the reports received are of those trafficked children. Though all children and adults are still at a risk of getting involved in the unending string of sex trafficking victims(Wulfhorst). Therefore meeting new people on platforms like social media come with many dangers that many don’t pay

As mentioned, the children internet users are in great risk of victimization from being victimized by the online predators. The problem of online predators consistently increased as people gained more easy access to the internet through diverse forms. As a response to this social concern, the government in Canada introduced an act named Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act on 2012 in the House of Commons. The main fundamental purpose behind the Bill-C30 is to solve the major difficulties the police agencies face when they conduct the cyber crime investigations by granting them certain authors to obtain personal information of internet users through the process of surveillance.

Cyberbullies can hurt children and sexual predators stalk the internet. As Coben stated, “First we've all read about the young boy unknowingly conversing with a pedophile of a girl who was cyber bullied to the point where she committed suicide”(Coben). Cyberbullies attack children, but if parents had spyware they might be able to prevent these attacks. Suzanne Choney from NBC News stated, “with recent cases like that of a 14-Year old boy posting a sexually explicit video of himself with a 14- year old girl on facebook”(Choney). Monitoring teens while on social media could save children from sexual exploits. Although spyware may protect children from the dangers, it is also an invasion of privacy. As Dr Peggy Drexler asserted “its not the fault of the social media...The best policy is to give kids their privacy”(Drexler). Spyware is an invasion of privacy and may cause children to lose trust in their parents, but it is the parent's responsibility to protect their child. As Coben stated”...but surrendering parental responsibility to a machine that allows the entire world access to your home borders on negligence”(Coben). In addition, Coben also states that every thing that children put on the internet can be seen by everyone, “Shouldn't he learn now the internet is not a haven of privacy”(Coben).

”The internet has come so far in the last several years. It is so easy to go online and pretend to be someone you aren’t; and that’s exactly what traffickers do. Some go through Facebook, Myspace, Craigslist, and many more websites. There are over 100,000 ads posted in the United States each day (Our). 70 percent of all underaged sex trafficking victims said they were sold and/or advertised online with a picture, description, and price (Our). The United States is the number one producer of child pornography in the world (Our). The problem is, with today's technology, it’s hard to put a stop to it. These sites are highly secured, but there are still ways to get around it. With the internet, traffickers have the ability to target a much greater amount of victims.

Everyday technology is changing the way we live and everyday we must keep up with the changes so we’re never left behind. Law isn’t much different, it requires being up to date in order to stay current and unfortunately technology is one of the trickiest laws to maintain. With the growth of technology came the Internet, which subsequently became a common tool for anonymous users to say what they please to anyone with no cost, cyber bullying. There are laws in place but children and teenagers are still being exposed to what’s out in the World Wide Web. Subjecting children to freedom on the Internet without a safeguard from a young age is presenting them with countless dangers to their psychological health. The Internet is such a huge and forbidding place and unfortunately not much is put into place in order to protect us against online predators.

The internet is much like the outside world but it is also very different.For example on the internet a random teenager can talk to a grown man or woman across the world from them and gain perspective on that side of the world and other useful skills,but what if that man or woman is a dangerous person and is wanting to exploit or use the teenager,that is what parents are afraid of and although it is a very possible thing to happen if the child is old enough they should be able to at least suspect something and learn from that experience on not to trust strangers.

In this article the author discusses about the harmful actives that the internet dose to the youth. With two main points; cyber bullying and sexting, the author briefly discusses what they are and what threat that occurs from them. The article is useful to me because it shows the harmfulness on what could happen on the internet. However, this article is very vague and lakes a certain amount of information to achieve its point.

Personally, websites like “A Parent’s Guide to Internet Safety” and shows like “To Catch a Predator” are a powerful asset/tool to the community because they give information to keep children protected online. The problem is that people don’t utilize the knowledge of these shows/websites until it is too late. I feel that the effectiveness of these websites/shows is based on how people utilize the resources. If people aren’t aware of these resources and prevent measures then these websites/shows don’t seem effective but if you they are aware of them, these resources can turn into a powerful asset to combat online predators. I feel that the first line of defense to protect children from sexual predators online is the parents. Parents need to be aware of what their children are searching online and who they are communicating with. Parents can accomplish this by placing passwords on computers, limiting the amount of time a child is on a cellphone or a computer, and monitor their online activities.

The agencies employed by governments to police the web in order to protect the vulnerable have seen an increase in child pornography and online fraud. The speed at which information can be distributed and the number of people that can be reached attracts those that are intent on causing harm. The term “cybercrime” is becoming more widely used. The financial gains that can be made and the anonymity the internet can provide, make the virtual world of cyberspace a haven for criminals. Although the internet has huge benefits for information gathering and social networking, in the wrong hands it can cause harm to the vulnerable and criminals are able to vanish into the underground with the use of false identities that are hard to track online.

Some parents are not aware of dangers of internet that brings to their children particularly making friends through internet. For example, their children might get cheated with someone else on internet and their children will not tell what happen to them when they encounter danger. According to BBC News, a 47 year old man defrauded a 13 year old girl online and asked to meet face to face. Luckily, the girl’s mother found out beforehand or else her daughter might be in danger. From this news, we can see that there internet friends are not always honest and they are more likely to consider as un-trustful strangers. Therefore, parents should concern more about their children, teach them about the dangers of making friends on internet, and avoid them from going out with a stranger.