The world has never been free of perverts and malevolent people. But with the advent of the internet, social networks have become the new hunting grounds where these distorted minds seek out the vulnerable to prey on. How many times have we heard reports of adults engage in luring youngsters on the internet to satisfy their perverted souls? Why has this become so rampant? These despicable predators take advantage of the fact that many children have access to the computer, lots of teens are said to spend insurmountable time online and those who are lonely can easily fall prey to any “friendly” chat. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/06/16/f-luring.html
There are other stories of serial killers actually using the chat rooms to lure their victims. John Robinson is said to be the first internet serial killer. He seduced and victimized women he met online. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/john_robinson/index.html
Take a look at a Dateline NBC presentation To Catch a Predator, hosted by Chris Hansen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7ACJ4Acddc&feature=related . These perverts of all walks of life choose the social media networks as their playing field and try to befriend young girls to have sex with them.
We all must be vigilant and wary of the dangers the networks can present. Taking precaution in reducing these security risks is paramount. This website have a list of tips that we all should take a look at and educate others on the wicked spun of "webs" on the net. http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST06-003.html
Yolanda I agree with you regarding staying safe online. In addition to perverts taking advantage of people online, "sexting" is also becoming rampant. Sexting is the sending of explicit photos via the cellphone and email. And this is very common in high schools maybe even elementary schools and the authorities do not have a clue of how to stop this from happening. The advanced technology that we have now has made this type of communication so easy and very hard to track down. See this article for more details http://www.staysafeonline.org/blog/the-beginnings-some-rational-responses-sexting. So people who are desperate for friendship might want to send explicit photos of themselves to present a picture of being "cool". And in so doing they can fall prey to predators online.
ReplyDeleteBy Collette
Yolanda, after watching the link by Chris Hansen, it is really sad how some married men are leading double lives. Pretneding to be husbands and at the same time luring young girls to have sex with them. Though advanced technology has made online communication easy, the same technology has helped some of these perverts got caught as Chris Hansen is presenting. My wish is these perverts would reason and think that they may be caught and stop this ungodly behaviour for everybody to enjoy social networking. Parents should play a major role by educating their teenagers about how to stay safe online. The link below provides tips to stay safe online http://www.haltabuse.org/resources/online.shtml
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