Are you tracking your kid's chat friends?
If you have been tracking your kids for drugs, alcohol and sex, just update your 'to-track’ list.
By INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK |
If you have been tracking your kids for drugs, alcohol and sex, you just may need to update your ‘to-track’ list. Some strangers on the internet are trying to lure your kid into sexually explicit activities and for children, who are just beginning to understand their sexuality, and without parental guidance, the invitation may prove to be too tempting to ignore. Net predators are on the prowl, pedophilic acting as your kids’ friend, something, you need to keep your children away from.
If net-savvy kids are the soft target then messenger is the soft medium. First thing any new net user learns is to chat on umpteen messengers available online free of cost. All these need you to have a profile containing screen name, including their hobbies, friends and inside jokes.
All this may seem harmless but the smallest scrap of identifying information could be used to locate children, so it's better to leave the profile area blank which most of newbie don’t understand.
Late last month, a Connecticut 13-year-old was killed after a rendezvous with a man she had met on the Internet. Christina Long apparently lived a double life, frequently chatting with men on the Internet and sometimes meeting them for sex.
Those dalliances ended in a Danbury mall parking lot, where she had sex with 25-year-old Saul Dos Reis, who police say strangled her and left her body in a ravine.
Christina repeatedly sought out and toyed with danger before it caught up with her, but local authorities say predators can find even the most innocent child Internet users.
They cull identifying details -- age, gender, hobbies and location -- from online profiles and message boards and begin to bombard their intended victim with e-mails and Instant Messages.
If net-savvy kids are the soft target then messenger is the soft medium. First thing any new net user learns is to chat on umpteen messengers available online free of cost. All these need you to have a profile containing screen name, including their hobbies, friends and inside jokes.
All this may seem harmless but the smallest scrap of identifying information could be used to locate children, so it's better to leave the profile area blank which most of newbie don’t understand.
Late last month, a Connecticut 13-year-old was killed after a rendezvous with a man she had met on the Internet. Christina Long apparently lived a double life, frequently chatting with men on the Internet and sometimes meeting them for sex.
Those dalliances ended in a Danbury mall parking lot, where she had sex with 25-year-old Saul Dos Reis, who police say strangled her and left her body in a ravine.
Christina repeatedly sought out and toyed with danger before it caught up with her, but local authorities say predators can find even the most innocent child Internet users.
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They cull identifying details -- age, gender, hobbies and location -- from online profiles and message boards and begin to bombard their intended victim with e-mails and Instant Messages.
Of the 525 abused children seen at Buffalo's Child Advocacy Center for interviews and forensic medical exams each year, less than 5 percent are victimized by people they met on the Internet.
But as the number of computer and Net users grows, so too will the number of predators lurking behind the Internet's cloak of anonymity.
Net predators aren’t a big threat yet in India but they are growing as internet is penetrating into smaller towns and cities.
Learning from the American example, a recent University of New Hampshire study found that one in five U.S. children have received a sexual solicitation over the Internet within the past year, we must take all the precautionary steps before it turns into a gigantic problem.
Getting to know children's Internet friends -- even if they never meet in person -- is just the 21st century version of the parental refrain, "Whom are you going with? Who's going to be there?"
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Internet molesters seduce children with kindness, sympathy and gifts -- the same tools a genuine admirer would employ. They may offer advice and help with homework, creating the illusion of trust. So, one must be-friend their kids before any stranger does and make them feel at ease so that they can disclose all their hidden inhibitions – including their new net friends (predators).
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