Be Careful, Little Hands, What You Type
In the past couple of years, a new method of communicating on the Internet has exploded in growth, particularly among teenagers. Many kids have a blog (short for web log or web diary) and are posting information that is available world wide. Teens use this medium to communicate their feelings, interests, or to just say “hi” to each other. Unfortunately, sexual predators sometimes use this information to get close to the children, posing as children themselves, and try to coax them into revealing inappropriate pictures of themselves or to have an actual face-to-face encounter. Some teens are revealing their first name, age, contact information, location, e-mail addresses, Instant Messenger name, birth date, link to their home page, and in twenty percent of cases, their full name. These blogs and social networking sites are all the rage among young Internet users. Some of these sites are found at http://www.MySpace.com, http://www.xanga.com, http://www.MyScene.com, http://www.Live-Journal.com, and http://www.FaceBook.com. “I don’t see why pedophiles wouldn’t use this tool, if this is where the kids are,” said Ann Coulier of Net Family News.
Justin Berry was a 13-year-old honor student and class president when he started down a dark and dangerous path. He began with a webcam that he had hooked up to his bedroom computer with the intention of interacting with other kids his age. According to ABC News, “within minutes of hooking it up, Berry had received his first message from a man he would later learn was a child predator.” This 13-year-old began running his own webcam porn site with more than 1,000 adults paying to watch. A New York Times reporter discovered the image on the Web and wrote a long investigative piece about child Internet pornography. Berry told Oprah Winfrey, “You don’t realize how bad these people are. They can manipulate you to do just about anything.” Berry related that at first, he was offered $50 to take off his shirt and it quickly escalated beyond anything his unsuspecting parents could have imagined. Over the next five years, Berry became an Internet child porn star who was offered gifts, thousands in cash, and trips by predators who at first watched him through his webcam, and then arranged meetings in person.
Berry has since turned his list of clients over to the Justice Department. He is now a federal witness whose life has been threatened by the men who seduced him.
Is your child a potential victim? Here are some signs that you need to intervene in your child’s blogging habit:
- Does your child spend an inordinate amount of time online every day? More than one and a half hours a day is the dividing line between children who tend to engage in high risk online activities, such as meeting strangers offline, engaging in cybersex, or sending photos of themselves to strangers online.
- Are they between the ages of 11 and 15 years of age?
- Are they secretive about their Internet activities? Do you find that the screen goes blank when you walk by? (If they type the letters “pos,” that means “parent over shoulder.”)
- Do they have a web site, homepage or personal online profile? Look them over, if they do. See what your child shares with third parties online. Do they show another side? Do they make suggestive remarks on their site or on their profile? Do they refer to a “love” or someone special you don’t recognize?
Blogging is a modern way for kids to communicate with each other and it is unfortunate that there are predators out there seeking to prey on our children. Keep your computer in a central part of your home where there is minimal privacy. Talk to your children about the dangers of placing too much information online. For more help, go to http://www.wiredsafety.org.