Essay On Internet Predators

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

In the scholarly article “Child Seduction and Self-Representation on the Internet” by Ethel Quayle and Max Taylor, we learn how the internet plays a big role in how pedophiles may engage in child pornography and how they can locate children to potentially abuse. Offenders also use the internet to get in contact and to communicate with others who are also engaging in child pornography and pedophilia. The following is an explanation of child sexual abuse that happens in the internet.

Checking the news, keeping up with friends, and sharing quips of witty posts of a hundred and forty characters or less are the normal things for anybody to do while using a social media network. With ages ranging from the very young to the old, therein lies an assimilation of individuals whose information, location, and almost anything else are within their profile, just far enough away to keep the average stalker at bay, but close enough for a person with immoral intents to reach out and simply snatch. As the article, “Social Networking” observes, “…as Internet socializing grows, so do fears that the practice exposes the vulnerable – especially young people – to sexual predators” (627). Sexual predators are not the only people prowling around the Internet, for the range of criminals run the gamut, from potential murderers to vicious kidnappers, with their greatest weapon being something nearly everyone has access to in this modern era. Thus, through social media platforms, alone, these websites contain the information of millions upon millions of unique individuals, where, sometimes, it is as simple as scrolling down to select someone to hack into next. Often enough, these Internet forums are places where even a high school kid can do some damage, but not in the form of using personal information for selfish

Have you ever gotten bullied through the internet, or felt unsafe? The internet is a platform where many people can post things such as videos, pictures, etc. People can also view the things other people post. The internet is a fun and entertaining place. It has many social platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. Although the internet is very entertaining, it’s also a very dangerous platform where people can cyberbully you, stalk you, and scam you.

As technology evolves daily, offenders of sexual victimization will use this outlet to continue victimization. The internet is easily accessible and is used frequently by numerous people. When one is on the internet they are able to hide behind a computer screen. One way these offenders have used the internet for sexual victimization is creating create fake social media accounts where they pose as someone else. Although social media is intended to be a place to connect with friends and family, some have abused these websites and have become online predators. Offenders can target a victim by first following their profile, commenting on pictures, or statuses, and then began online chatting. Through these messages they can attempt to make false

Children have access to everything these days, and the internet isn't always the safest place when a child is exposed to technology at such a young age. When technology is being introduced to children, it worries parents about how safe their child is while using the internet. The absolute best kind of control over the internet is the kind that teaches children to use it responsibly. Internet safety is a tremendous problem for children, teens, and even adults these days.

Online child predators have many methods of locating, grooming, and abusing their victims. These predators locate their victims online through chatrooms, instant messaging, email, as well as social media sites (Wolak, Finkelhor, Mitchell, Ybarra 2008). Once the predator finds his victim, he will then begin grooming the child. The purpose of the grooming process is to establish and gain the child’s trust (Enough is Enough, 2017). The predators grooming tactics include, but not limited to: flattering and complimenting the child excessively, send gifts, invest time, money, and energy to groom the child, develop trust and secrecy, manipulate the child by listening to and sympathizing with the child’s problems and insecurities, and make promises of an exciting, stress free life, tailored to the youth’s desire (Enough is Enough, 2017).”

Most online predators have a typical method for looking for the trust of a more youthful person that turns into a possible casualty.

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

Online predators are a very real danger for internet users, especially young people, who need to be careful about how they share information about themselves and how that information may be put to use. With so much information on the internet, it is possible to trace the home address of a person without too much information. Posts on social media or use of location tracking apps, may alert predators to a child’s movements, routines, address and even when they are at home alone. Even though there is a common perception that vulnerable children and girls are most at risk, this is a very real danger for all children.

Some people try to get teenagers to do sexual things with them, and they are called online predators. They can be anyone, but they tend to be a white, man. They usually follow the law, and have jobs that can cover what they did up. They often do things with kids and look trustworthy. They use this tool to lure teens, called grooming. Grooming is when conversations seem lighthearted, but they are getting information. The child gains trust in the predator, and the predator gets information about the kid. It is usually done by talking about popular music, movies, and other media.They also could start complimenting the kid. Teens who talk to online predators usually act secretive online, obsessed with online, gets things from random people, and makes or gets phone calls from random numbers. Teens without privacy settings, or people who post personal information online are at risk most for meeting an online predator.

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.

Online predators do not fit any one mold or stereotype; seemingly upstanding citizens have been caught enticing children for sexual acts. Contrary to popular belief, most online predators are not pedophiles. Pedophiles target pre-pubescent children, while online predators typically target adolescents who engage in risky online behavior. (Wolak J, Finkelhor D, Mitchell K, Ybarra M. 2008).

In this day and age of super high-speed networking and digital communications, just about anything on any subject can be found on the Internet. Some materials, such as online libraries are helpful, some, such as student’s personal homepages are fairly useless, and some sites, such as online medical references, can be lifesaving. All these sites have a right to be on the web. However, there are also sites that could be detrimental to people, such as pornography sites, pages detailing the manufacture of illegal drugs, and instructions on how to build high explosives and other illegal devices. With the number of these types increasing daily, parents and lawmakers alike are becoming concerned for the well being of the