Online Predators and the Need for Preventative Measures Essay example

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,

One in four US teen girls reported that they met strangers off the Internet. One in seven boys admitted they did as well. While most of these "Internet friends" turn out to be another teen or preteen, that 's not always the case. Unfortunately, children are now dying at the hands of their Internet child molesters and, not all sexual exploitation of children occurs offline.

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

One of the main hazards that Social Networking can bring is Sexual Predators. Vicki Haddock a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle believes, “the internet was once seen as a Golden information superhighway” (Document C). In which people were able to see the next generation of what was called the promise

The issue of sex offenses being committed using social media sites, such as Facebook, is a growing issue in today’s society. This research is designed to determine whether an average Facebook user believes the social media site is used as an avenue for committing sex offenses. In order to conduct the research analysis there will be a Qualtrics survey given to 113 social media users in the Treasure Valley. The survey questions will be based on previous research that has shown demonstrating chances of a sexual predator committing a sexual offense while using Facebook. The results from the survey will be compared to the literature research to understand if an average Facebook users participated in the survey have the potential to conduct acts similar to an online sexual predator. This is based on analysis from the ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) task force stating some sex offenders use the privacy and anonymity of the internet to prey on children and teenagers that have unsupervised access to the internet (Hagan, 2010). Present research also focuses on sexual and cyber behavior to understand the psychology behind using manipulation and other tactics to lure underage victims into meeting in person. The importance of the research is to determine whether there is a relationship between the use of Facebook and committing sex offenses. Literature on social media fantasy is used to analyze how different personas are created, and an altered reality is lived by the

2008). Unfortunately, majority of youths who are targeted by the online predators and accept invitations to meet in person tend to acknowledge that they will likely be engage in sexual relationship(Wolak et al, 2008). Thus, these factors illustrates that children in Canada require great cares and protections from the online predators.

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.

Every 4 out of 5 minors do not utilize privacy settings on their social media. Meaning their accounts are completely open to the public and entirely accessible to complete strangers. It is a very taboo topic to talk about but sex offenders can be stalking and waiting on any minor social media. Many minors tend to share anything and close to everything about their lives on their social media. Due to this fact most of them do not apply privacy settings whilst oversharing and posting personal information, giving enormous amounts of access to these sexual predators, therefore putting these minors at great risk. Although , there are some minors that use social media appropriately and properly. But, even those few Instagram accounts or tumblr blogs that belong to minors do seem to be used exactly the way they should be, they still aren’t being smart. There are famous blogs and youtube channels belonging to minors that are plastered all over the internet. These minors are not being completely safe. They are sharing and posting some very personal information to their 24K followers with no regard to practicing safety at

The Internet holds endless amounts of information where anyone can find whatever their heart desires. That being said, a person who is looking for a pretty face can visit a few sites and with just a few steps, can know anything and everything about that person. Because this is an increasingly pressing issue, I chose a video ad that shows not only how dangerous the Internet can be, but also how to avoid and get away from the treachery that people often use to lure young, unassuming teens into their traps. In our contemporary society, there is no limit what people can get ahold of; whether it is on social media or on a poster that someone saw at the grocery store, it never goes away. This is why teens and young adult need to use caution when

Social media has led many benefits. For example, people are able to spread awareness about mental illness, connect with support groups, and expand searches for research participants. However, users of social media may unknowingly spread false information. Social media also has other drawbacks, which include decreases in-person interactions and increases in cyber-bullying. Children are now have the availability to access a vast amount of information through social media, but the responsibly of having a social media account may be beyond their developmental age abilities. Therefore, the vast increase and interest in social media may lead to researchers investigating human behaviors while noting differences among groups. Additionally, researchers will likely investigate how to assist parents in maintaining appropriate boundaries with social media while remaining safe. From a prevention viewpoint, educating parents and teachers about talking to children about proper use of the internet may be a practical

As the internet and social media have made our lives easier, it has also become a easy way for child predators to get in touch with kids. Parents are very much unaware of how cyber-predators look for children of any age from elementary school to high school. Predators can come in diverse forms and have different intentions than other predators. Predators at the least can look for vulnerable children to create online sexual relations with. Next predators can try to meet face-to-face with children they found online and sexually assault them consensually or not. Finally, the worst a cyber-predator can do is find children to become a victim of human trafficking. However, the internet isn’t all a bad thing. It is a very easy and useful tool that

Understanding why and how children become victims to online predators is relatively simple to understand and process. Parents are always telling their children to respect and obey adults. This has been instilled to the children that the adults hold the power of acceptance and the pleasure of pleasing the adult figures in their life (whether it be teachers, law enforcement, clergy, etc). Once this has been a learned lesson the children reluctantly become the victims because they were taught to obey and listen but they are not aware of the dangers because this is just a norm to them.