Perversion and the Internet
The Internet. An information super-highway to hate, violence, and child pornography. Sure it was ok when the nudie pictures came out, but teaching children racism and bigotry and exploiting innocent children in a sexual manner is taking things a little too far. Buckle your seatbelts and strap on those eyeglasses; we are about to take a ride on the “Informational Highway”.
The First Amendment has been stretched, ripped, and torn into little pieces of propaganda, conveniently located on the “World-Wide-Web” for the viewing pleasures of all; young and old. In the last decade, more than ever, children are being taught how to make bombs, start race wars within their communities, get away with murder, and
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Consequently, Governments, corporations, and people of goodwill have looked for alternative ways to address the problem.
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Internet Service Providers (ISPs) based in the United States are not bound by the First Amendment, and they are not legally liable for the content of the sites they host. Consequently, the decision to host violent, or child pornography sites is theirs alone. Whatever their motivation, some have elected to host perverts and haters, while others require subscribers to sign contractual terms of service which prohibit using their facilities to promote sex and bigotry.[1]
It’s a far to familiar story. A child visiting a chat room, thinking he or she is making a new friend, gets to know someone who they think is another curious child like themselves. They decide to meet their new friend only to be raped and killed by another “Cyber- Pedophile”. It happens to adults as well, although children have always been vulnerable to victimization. Their trusting nature and naiveté make them perfect targets for perpetrators- both people they know and those they don’t. As children grow into adolescence, they remain vulnerable to victimization. Youth are often curious and eager to try new things. Many youth struggle with issues of rebellion and independence and often seek attention and affection from people outside the home, often by using computers. Today, an estimated 10 million children are using the Internet. By 2005,
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.
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
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
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.
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
Tears begin to fall down a child’s face. Her body goes into shock out of fear. Her mother warned her about watching inappropriate content, and there it was, right on her computer screen. This could not have happened though. All she was doing was casually browsing the internet before a pop-up appeared. Although it may seem hard to believe, the major cause of events such as this is the lack of censorship on the internet. Internet censorship relates to the removal of offensive, inappropriate, or controversial content published online. The current problem with the internet is that there are few restrictions on what can be published or viewed. Several sites on the internet only offer a warning about inappropriate content that can easily be
The Internet has incurred a tremendous amount of growth and opportunity for the country as well as the world; elevating communication, information, and commerce to a new level. With all this unprecedented innovation, the Internet has also brought controversy that challenges the very foundation of rights that countries like the United States were founded on. With countless websites containing unregulated and objectively offensive content, and the public having an ease of access to this content will result in severe damages to the development of the youth if no censorship is put in place for them to view this content. Additionally, markets are being exploited by piracy which has resulted in billions of dollars being lost by the domestic economy
Since the internet has been available in schools and libraries in this country, there has been a debate about what should be accessible to users, especially minors. The amount of information disseminated on the world wide web is vast, with some sources valuable for scholarly and personal research and entertainment, and some sources that contain material that is objectionable to some (ie. pornography, gambling, hate groups sites, violent materials). Some information potentially accessible on the internet such as child pornography and obscenity is strictly illegal and is not protected under the First Amendment. Some information available on the internet that may be valuable to some is at the same time perceived to be worthless or
The Internet is a global network of vast information. With a few clicks, an individual can have access to up to 200 million web-sites filled with educational and recreational information. The Internet is not regulated in anyway (Carnegie Library 1). It is accessible throughout the entire world from the North to the South, to the early morning sunrise and dark sunsets. Different ethnicity and backgrounds come together linked upon this network resembling a connection of one body in unity. Sadly, issues arise creating concern for users, focusing particularly on minors. Pornography is one of the inappropriate materials on the Internet for minors. This material is harmful to young impressionable minds. Pornography is tearing and
As thousands of sexual predators roam the web and on most commonly used sites, only 18% of youth use chat rooms, however the majority of internet initiated sex crimes against children are initiated in chat rooms. An example of a sexual predator could be an online predator targeting young victims trying to get sexual related images from them by targeting young vulnerable people, unable to judge the seriousness of the situation or through blackmail. This is what happened in the case of Scottish teenager Daniel Perry earlier this year, resulting in his suicide. Sexual predators can also be connected to the Deep web by exploiting nudity or sexual content of a child or young adult on a 'CP' website, which stands for child pornography. These can also be sold on the Deep web for an exchange of bitcoin. These are just more examples of why we should be worried and most importantly informed of how dangerous the Deep web is so we can avoid the bad situations we may come
The writer of this article (Stephen Balkan published on Friday the 15th of august 2014) outlines arguments made by various acclaimed members of society such as the education advisor Anthony smythe. Balkam used smythe to convey idea that the internet “is a lawless jungle too dangerous for children to use” balkam uses this quote to make the audience feel fear and to give those invested a fresh look on the internet. She then says that his depiction of the internet is a “bleak and somewhat anarchic depiction” balkam then says that his views are aligned this way because of some “high-profile cases of teenagers taking their own lives” smythe then goes on to say that we need tighter legislation around the internet. Balkam furthers this argument with ideas from the non-profit FOSI (Family Online Safety Institute) though in specifying that the institute is non-profit the author is saying that this is selfless institute that we should listen to and makes the audience feel more obliged to take their opinion into hand. The FOFI says that “they welcome any efforts to tackle difficult and complex issues” the
One study found that over half of children with access the internet on a weekly basis have been exposed to online pornography and almost a third receive unwanted sexual comments via email, chat, instant message or text. (Livingstone, s and Bober M 2004). There is no one way that CSE is perpetrated (CEOP, 2011; Berelowitz et al. 2013). Grooming is common in some forms of CSE, but it is not always present (Beckett, 2011; Melrose, 2013). Online and offline exploitation can overlap (Fox and Kalkan, 2016). Although CSE can presented itself in different forms youth workers and educators should be clear that CSE is abuse and in whatever form it presents itself , it still is child abuse. One thing that is clear, definitions of CSE emphasises exchange and power imbalance. It is explicit about the power the perpetrator has over the young person or persons they are exploiting, either through forceful acts or through persuasive techniques that might convince a young person they are making a ‘choice’, it is therefore important that practitioners use language that reiterates the need to look beyond apparent consent, especially as young people may describe exploitative relationships as consensual or withdraw claims as a result of coercion (Green et al, 2014).
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
Statistics show that approximately 20 to 70 percent of adult child sex offenders had been previously sexually abused (AIC 2015). It has also been suggested that the sexual behaviour may have been a learnt response to ease the pain of past sexual abuse (AIC 2015). Further, learnt behaviours need to be unlearnt or implemented before negative behaviour takes place (Akers & Sellers 2009). To minimise Internet crime around the world, such as child grooming, a variety of actions must take place. Peer counselling and specialised educational programs such as, teaching children the dangers of the Internet, are some ways of preventing online child
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.