Keeping Kids Safe on the Internet

Picture from www.scottcounseling.com

As with all new technology available to children today that was originally intended for good uses but unfortunately some bad people can change that. There have been thousands of cases across the US and other countries where a child was lured in by a internet predator. On average, according to the Youth Internet Safety Survey, a survey, performed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 1 in 5 children have been approached inappropriately while online. 

There are people who's goal is to seek out children and exploit them. Unfortunately children can get distracted on what is good and bad because these predators will spend a lot of time "grooming" these children. They may  give attention, affection and sometimes even gifts. They want to make the child feel safe with them even when they are obviously not. These people will continue to dote on the child until they feel they are able to introduce sexual content without alarming the child.

The FBI has a guide that parents should follow to help see if their child might be endangered. Some of the points are:

• Your child spends large amounts of time on-line, especially at night.
  • Predators are online at all times but they are on the heaviest in the evening and late hours. They know when children are on the most is after school and evening. 
•  You find pornography on your child's computer.
• Predators will often send photos or videos in their efforts to desensitize the child.
• Your child receives phone calls from people you don't know or is making calls, sometimes long distance, to numbers you don't recognize.
• The predator will often give out their number because most children won't give theirs but with caller ID it is easy for a predator to get the child's number.
• Your child receives mail, gifts, or packages from someone you don't know.
• They might try sending gifts to the child in hopes of luring them away or having more trust in them.
• Your child turns the computer monitor off or quickly changes the screen on the monitor when you come into the room.
• Your child becomes withdrawn from the family.
• A predator will start to pick at minor problems that the child may be having at home with his/her family. It is another way to have the child detach from the family and be more "loyal" to them.

Here are some statistics that are rather scary about online predators:

• One in five U.S. teenagers have received an unwanted sexual solicitation via the Web. Solicitations were defined as requests to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk, or to give personal sexual information.
• 25% of children have been exposed to unwanted pornographic material.
• Only 1/3 of households with Internet access are actively protecting their children with filtering or blocking software.
• 75% of children are willing to share personal information online about themselves and their family in exchange for goods and services.
• Only approximately 25% of children who encountered a predator told a parent or adult.
• One in 33 youth received an aggressive sexual solicitation in the past year. This means a predator asked a young person to meet somewhere, called a young person on the phone, and/or sent the young person correspondence, money, or gifts through the U.S. Postal Service.
• 77% of the targets for online predators were age 14 or older.  Another 22% were users ages 10 to 13.
  

If you suspect your child might have been affected from online predators there are things you can do to help. Always keep the lines of commutation open with you child. They need to know they can come to you with any problem and not be afraid of the punishment. Talk to them about the dangers of the internet. Also, make sure you have access to all of your child's accounts and computer files. If your child is unwilling to let you look at their information then there may be a problem.  Overall the best thing a parent can do is to be active and aware of what their child is doing online.