Imagine you are a parent at home and hear a commotion outside your front door. You look out to notice several teenagers who are taunting and threatening your child. Or perhaps it is a 40 year-old sexual predator peering inside your daughter’s window at night.
Parents will go to great lengths to protect their children from these threats. Or would they?
Adolescents are increasingly being subjected to internet bullying and on-line sexual predation. School and law enforcement officials have seen a significant increase in the number of complaints regarding these issues, and several arrests have already been made in these areas.
But these are just the ones that are reported. Many students admit to being the victim of internet bullying, sexual solicitation, and unwanted exposure to pornography on-line. Many students suffer from the effects of these experiences without reporting them.
Part of the problem is that on-line interaction with others still has a “virtual” feel to it. Teens sitting at home on the computer, typically in their own bedrooms, are likely to say things they wouldn’t ordinarily say in person. This increases the likelihood that students will bully, harass, or intimidate others on-line, and also increases the likelihood that they will engage in sexually provocative conversations with others—whether they know who they’re talking to or not.
Sexual predators use the internet to identify and locate specific individuals. Many times, teenagers offer this information to strangers—knowingly or not. Yet potential sex offenders do not need much help. One or two pieces of information (a picture, address, name of home town, location of school and activities, phone numbers for text messaging, etc.) are all that is necessary for a stranger to gain detailed information about a person.
Personal web pages such as MySpace and FaceBook have become hugely popular among adolescents, providing them with opportunities for regular (but at times obsessive) communication and affiliation with peers. Unfortunately, these personal web pages also enable bullying and harassment, and facilitate promiscuous behavior through postings of provocative pictures and information. These sites are commonly used by sexual predators to target potential victims.
Children and parents must become knowledgeable of both the explicit and subtle dangers of the web so that they can safely negotiate their way in cyberspace.
|
