One of the attractions of the Internet is the anonymity of the user, and this is why it can be very dangerous. Often we think of pedophiles as having access to children out on the playground and other places, but because of the way the Internet works, children can actually be interacting on their home computers with adults who pretend to be children. With children spending more and more time on the Internet chatting with friends, and exploring the Internet. It opens many doors for sexual predators to enter these innocent children lives, posing as their friend, trying to take advantage of them. According to Chris Hansen, an Dateline NBC reported, a recent study found that one in five children online is approached by a sexual predator, a predator who may try to set up a face to face meeting. This is a huge problem in our society, and many people and originations are trying to find ways to identify and block sexual predators. The most common way these predators contact children is through chat rooms, instant messages, and chat rooms. In February 2007, MySpace.com said it will donate its Sentinel Safe database software to the National centre for Missing & Exploited Children. The program promises to let Web sites to identify convicted sex offenders and bar them from their online communities. The database holds 600,000 registered sex offenders in the US, and designed to update from offender registries. We need to stop these predators at all costs, and send a message to them that this is not acceptable and they will be caught and punished.
References
Hansen, Chris. (2004) Dangers Children Face Online. Retrieved April 5, 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6083442
(2007) MySpace Donates Tools to Block Predators. Retrieved April 5, 2007, from http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/MySpace-Donates-Tools-to-Block-Predators/2007/02/01/1169919442593.html
References
Hansen, Chris. (2004) Dangers Children Face Online. Retrieved April 5, 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6083442
(2007) MySpace Donates Tools to Block Predators. Retrieved April 5, 2007, from http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/MySpace-Donates-Tools-to-Block-Predators/2007/02/01/1169919442593.html
3 comments:
Are there any statistics that the shows like Dateline are helping the problem of sexual predators? Also what are the different suggestions about how to protect your children from these sexual predators?
your research claims people like to experiment over the internet new identities. What are the statistics of people's experimentations? Is there a certin percent that stick eith a new found identity? Or is there a percentage of people who don't like their new identity discovery?
How much would it stink to be the sexual predator guy in the picture! It would be hard to live that down.
My question relates to solutions for stopping crimes before they happen. I liked that your research included what happens to offenders, i.e.: that they're not allowed to participate in online communities anymore, etc. Was there anything you read that raised interesting ideas about how to stem these types of crimes other than the obvious ones: like parents caring enough not to let their children wander the Internet completely unattended for hours everyday?
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