Predators On The Internet

According to guardchild.com, 17% of teens surveyed stated that they received an email or an online message with photos or words that made them feel uncomfortable, and only 7% of parents were aware of this. In an article titled “The Undercover Parent” by Harlan Coben, it explains about the idea about parents using spyware on their children. Everything a child types can already be seen by the world, even pedophiles or online bullies. Coben supports the idea; however, he feels that showing the article to a child is better because it can lead to a to a conversation about concerns the parents may have. Parents should monitor their children’s online behavior because they want to keep their children safe from cyber bullies and pedophiles.

Further exploration discovered that the choice of sexual expression correlates more to the child’s age then the offenders (Sanford, 87). Offenders do not form intimate relationships with other adults (Henderson, 39). Eight-five percent of sexual activity was nonorgasmic with one-fourth of activity ending before any stimulation occurred by the offender (Sanford, 83). Now that we know some offenders characteristics, it is paramount that we learn to identify traits that may be common to youthful victims.

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

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”

According to Justine Cassell and Meg Cramer’s article ‘High Tech or High Risk: Moral Panics about Girls Online’, moral panics about how girls use the web as a means of communication is a case that has existed for many years. Their reasoning attracts parallels between moral panics about girls’ use of social platforms in today’s world, and the moral panics that occurred in the past regarding the girls’ use of the telephone. Cassell and Cramer use these relations to explain that girls who use the internet are not completely as at risk as believed to be and that the alarming discourse concerning girls online has further to do with the parent’s insecurities about the influence of young girls and their loss of control over them than it has to do with exposure to online predators (Cassell & Cramer, 2008, p. 54). As a result of this notion of moral panic causing parents to restrict girls access to the internet for their safety, the authors argue that instead of guarding them away from harm, they are obscuring them away from chances and benefits presented with the access of the web

With the creation of computers and Internet, high-tech crimes are occurring more frequently than few decades ago. According to a report made by the U.S. Department of Justice; “one in five children (10 to 17 years old) receives unwanted sexual solicitations online” (Knetzger & Muraski, 2008). One of this online sex-crime against children is known as child enticement. The Florida statute 847.0135 states that an individual is involved in online child enticement when “[…] utilizes a computer on-line service, Internet service, or […] to seduce, solicit, lure, or entice, or attempt to […] a child or another person believed by a person to be a child to commit any illegal act […] relating to sexual battery […]” (Knetzger & Muraski, 2008). Therefore, online sex-crime investigators must use the appropriate protocols during an investigation to avoid a lawful criminal defense based on law enforcement entrapment.

For example, the author said “it is far easier for a predator to troll chat rooms and MySpace and Facebook”, But text messages and cell phones don’t offer the anonymity and danger of the Internet they are usually one-on-one with someone you know. I agree with the author said that parents should put spyware on their kids phones and computers, it might keep the kids from a lot of trouble. Parents should not be nosey or trying to eavesdrop but should know what their kids are doing. There's a lot thing that happen not just on the interent but in real life, they could be smoking or meeting with someone they do not know. They could into serious trouble if there meeting up with someone they do not know, the person could be a drug dealer, he may be a pedophile, or he might just kidnap your

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

According to Casselle & Cramer (2008), this article talk about moral panics where girls use type of communication technologies being not common. Their discussion try to draw comparison between today’ girls fear and using the internet, mainly from websites, and also concern about using the telegraph and telephone. They try to use various statistics to argue that girls online are not at risk as they claimed but the panic rhetoric about girls online has more to do, where adults’ begin to fear about the agency of young girls loss of their control over them that it has more to do with risks of online predators. In this article, they discuss the various opportunities available to girls online and how statistic is been shows significant

Unknown to most, the Deep Web actually exists and only takes a few clicks on your computer to access it, if you know what you're doing. Also unknown to most is the illegal activity and the online predators that are roaming all over the web. These predators can be financial predators or sexual predators. Throughout this essay I will be explaining three themes in chronological order. Financial predators, sexual predators, and discussing why the illegal activity on the Deep web is bad for society.

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.

Internet safety has been an extensive issue for children and adolescents since accuse to the Internet has become readily available in homes. With Internet use increasing at such rapid rates and a large proportion of adolescents using the Internet daily, the awareness of Internet safety should be addressed. The term Internet safety can be defined as “the knowledge of maximizing an individuals safety to private information, and self protection from using the Internet”. The impact and influence that the Internet has on adolescent life is far-reaching and research findings by Norris (2007) indicate that one-quarter of the American youth that go online at home, do so in the privacy of their rooms. Additionally, with the recent trend of wireless connections there has been a profound expansion in private Internet usage. The diverse means by which adolescents are using the Internet has become coupled with inherent risks of unsupervised and uneducated use.

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.

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.