I'm sure you've read stories about teens being abducted by child abductors online. Makes the internet seem dangerous, especially social networking sites, the most popular of which being Myspace, where a few kids were abducted by meeting people through the site. But is it that big of a problem? Although it may seem dangerous, in reality it's not that bad. In this report, I'll be explaining why the internet is safer than you may think from what you hear on the news.
The Perception of these Websites
First off, lets look at the perception of these things. Sites such as Myspace and Bebo, and even the internet itself is fairly new to the world. Whenever something new comes out, it is usually both praised AND criticized. I'm sure that when most new medical advances are made, they're at first criticized for the danger it could cause. But they're also praised for how much they can cure. Eventually it is usually either just praised or criticized when people start weighing which is more important.
Social Networking sites are praised by teens for the simplicity of them being able to communicate to friends, but criticized by parents due to the “dangers” of online abductors. Now considering that very few parents use the site itself, they rarely know all the safety features on the site which I will get to later. But also because they don't use the site, they don't get to see the praise that the site receives. All they hear about is the couple of kids where were abducted, and assume it's terrible.
Security
Now lets talk about those safety features I just mentioned. Almost all social networking sites and Instant Messengers have the ability to block people, and many sites prevent adults from communicating with children. That means that IF a child predator tries to communicate with a child, the child can simply block the person. This also completely eliminates any excuse for children to be “bullied” or “harassed” online. In these cases, it is completely the child's fault for not blocking the person.
Also, it is not possible to retrieve any information of the child from the website itself. This means again that any information that the predator gains was given by the child themselves.
Compared to Real Life
Now lets look at the comparison of internet to real life, and some statistics. There are over 150,000,000 Myspace profiles. How many have been abducted? No more than just a couple. How many people have been abducted who were not abducted by online predators? A lot more, that's for sure. And lets assume that the child DOES talk to complete strangers online.
How often do you talk to complete strangers in real life? You don't know who that waiter at your restaurant is. And talking to strangers in real life is worse because then they have physical interaction with you, instead of just online interaction. By these standards, internet is safer than real life. But you're probably thinking about how people can lie about who they are on the internet.
Well, haven't you ever met someone who's lied about themselves in real life too? Anyone in real life can SAY they're a doctor, but you don't know. This is similar to how it is online. You have to judge for yourself. Also, the children who have been abducted online have agreed to meet the abductor.
You will probably never see a case where someone slowly wrote down information about the person until they could catch them and abduct them. They completely eliminates the point of online predators. They only go to find a child to meet them in a dark area where they can get them with no trouble at all. If they're gonna go through all that work, they might as well just grab a random kid walking to school (again, real life is more dangerous).
To Sum Everything Up
So to sum everything up: all you have to do is talk to your child and make sure they're smart enough not to meet people in real life, or give out too much info on themselves. As long as they don't do these basic things, all the internet is is basically real life interaction, but WITH security options.
As soon as the internet becomes more popular, the “dangers” of online predators will become less of a concern as people learn more about how safe it really is. But remember, this paper was not written so you could be reckless. Use your own discretion when communicating with others, especially people you do not know. Just like in real life.
