Teaching Teenagers About The Danger Of Internet Predators

by Teresa McEntire | More from this Blogger

19 Jul 2006 07:36 AM

It is summer and the average teenager is online 5.5 hours a day, with about 77 million on-line each day. Most are visiting one of the 40,000 chat rooms where according to a 2002 FBI report there is a 100% chance they will encounter a pedophile at some time.

What is the danger with chat rooms? The Safe Surfin Foundation says that the danger is that "75% of children and teens report sharing personal information about them and their families to complete strangers in chat rooms." Child predators use the tidbits of information that they glean from on-line chat rooms to create a profile of the teen. Having a last name, town, school, or phone number allows an Internet predator to discover the address and other personal information about your child from on-line sources. Most of the time teenagers are completely unaware that they are being profiled and believe they are taking to another teen.

FBI statistics from the Crimes Against Children Research Center show that 20% of solved abduction cases and 2 out of 5 missing teenagers are Internet related. Every 2 minutes 3 more children go missing. The Safe Surfin Foundation describes an Internet predator as someone who:

• Blends into society
• Is usually clean cut and not previously in trouble with the law
• Is most likely male (often white and middle-aged)
• Is in a professional occupation
• "Uses his position in society as a way to throw suspicion off his actions and in fact, can rise to become a pillar of society while actively pursuing his deviant fantasy."
• Often involved with child related activities
• Someone parents and children would trust

So what can we as parents do? Educate. Education is the key to protecting our children from Internet predators. Teenagers need to understand the dangers of Internet use, especially chat rooms, and take appropriate measures to protect themselves. Teach your children that they don't always know whom they are chatting with.

• Explain that people lie and real identities can easily be hidden on-line.
• Visit a chat room with your child and show them how easy it is to lie about your identity.
• Have your teenager point out ways others could be lying.

Explain how important it is to keep personal information out of conversation.

• Never use your real name, instead use your on-line name.
• "Impress upon your child that it is okay to fill out fields in the profile sections of communities just as long as they stick with general information such as "I collect sea shells or I enjoy football". Any field asking for personal information such as name, city, school should be left blank. Profile sections are where Internet predators scan for potential victims. Just because there are areas asking for information, it does not mean you have to fill them out." Visit profile sections with your child and help them fill them out.
• Help your children realize that although they may have chatted with another person that the person is still a stranger.
• Never reveal your address, school, town, team they play on, street name, phone number, or email address to anyone in a chat room. This information could be used to locate you.
• Never ever meet anyone you met on-line without telling an adult first.

For more information about Internet predators, including actual cases, and how to protect your children visit the Safe Surfin Foundation.

You can also find more information about child predators in these Families.com blogs: Protecting Your Child From Pornography

Parents Need to Monitor Teens Online Usage

Online National Sex Offender Public Registry Internet Safety - The good, the bad, and the ugly The epidemic of online child sexual crimes

Teaching Children About Child Molesters

Learn more about Teresa McEntire

Teresa McEntire grew up in Utah the oldest of four children. She currently lives in Kuna, Idaho, near Boise. She and her husband Gene have been married for almost ten years.

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Megan Bayliss (3586) 24 Jul 2006 02:02 AM

Oh Teresa....have you been looking through our longe room window? We have been having an ongoing discussion with our youngest child about this for the last couple of weeks. Because of the type of work I do I am paranoid about this subject anyway and I have worried that maybe I'm the odd one out and am well behind the techo age of communication. I have printed out this page and will be giving it to my son as evidence that there is at least one other parent in the world that worries about this. He views America as being a super special (we're in Australia) so the fact that this page is from an American site will act as an added bonus. I now do spot checks on the internet games he is playing to check that instant messaging is off but I sure find it difficult to remember to walk through and become interested in what level he's now on!!! What ever happened to board games? Perhaps the name of them (board) creates negative images in kids minds. We play cards a lot with our kids but the pull of the computer is MUCH stronger.

Teresa McEntire (2984) 24 Jul 2006 06:18 AM

I'm glad I could help. I havent' really had to address this issue with my kids yet, but they do love to spend time on-line playing games so it is just a matter of time before they start wanting to chat with friends.