Teens and children get online to websites to chat with friends and keep up with the newest trends. It could be music, dances, clothing, where to go, and even what to do. Teens usually do not pay attention to the number of predators online. A predator will spend up to 6 hours a day searching for a victim. Different predators have different goals in mind. Some may want someone to talk to in a vulgar manner, some may want pictures (sexting), and others may hope to get the teen or child to run away and meet them.
There are an estimated 500,000 online predators active each day. The average age of targeted children is between 12 and 15 years old with over 50% of victims of online sexual exploitation at that age and 89% of sexual advances directed at children occur in a chat room or through instant messaging according to the F.B.I.
Predators groom children online by visiting social media websites popular with young people and will pretend to be their age. The adult may try to secure their trust with fake profile pictures by pretending to share similar interests, offering gifts to the child, or complimenting the child.
Often, the gift is a phone that a predator will convince the child not to tell the parents about. Parents are being more vigilant about keeping a watch on their children’s phone usage. They look at calls, text messages, contacts and look for specific sites or apps on their children’s phones. However, if a predator sends the child a phone and the child keeps that phone a secret, the parents will never be the wiser to search it for their child’s safety.
Once the online relationship has been established, the groomer will often steer the conversation towards sex. The child may be pressured to take explicit photos or videos of themselves and send them to the groomer. In the most extreme cases, the groomer will pressure the child to meet in person and even fly in to meet the child. The groomer may blackmail the child by threatening to release the private photos or videos and share them with their friends or family.
Teach your teens how to navigate online safely. Things to watch for and be mindful about online include: do not give out personal information (telephone number, home address, school location, or where you like to hang out). A predator will use this information to find your teen and kidnap them if he has an infatuation with them or might want to sell them into sex trafficking. One needs to be very careful and watchful of what they are sharing online to protect themselves from possible bad outcomes. If someone tries to alienate them from friends and family by saying they are the only one that understands what they are going through or tries to convince them that they don’t need to tell anyone about them. These should be red flags that this is not a safe person to communicate with.
Another risky behavior that children participate in is sexting. The average grade that children are sexting the most is 4th and 5th grades. On average, that means 10 to 13-year-old children are doing the most sexting. At this age they look up to the high school kids and think that is what they do and they want to do the same thing. By the time they get to high school, they are usually done sexting. Parents need to be vigilant about talking to their children about the repercussions of sexting. If a child aged 14 or older sends an explicit picture, that is considered a Felony for child pornography in Arkansas. If a child shares that picture, keeps that picture or does not report that picture, the child can also be charged with a Felony for knowingly not reporting or for having child pornography. These charges are genuine and come with real consequences.
Children need to know that once that picture is sent, they lose all control of that picture. They cannot delete it from someone else’s phone; they cannot stop whoever has it from sharing it or showing it to other people. Once that message is sent, it can be used as a tool against the child that sent it. The person or predator who requested the picture might use it as blackmail to get that child to send more or meet them for sex. They may use it to bully that child. There have been instances where the boyfriend gets pictures and never deletes them. Months down the road, the couple breaks up. In revenge, the boyfriend shares that picture with all of his friends or to the whole school. Once that picture is out in the cyber world, it is never truly erased.
There are multiple apps that children like to use because they are known to “delete” pictures after so many hours or days. The problem with these apps is that nothing is ever entirely erased, and that picture can be found again.
Teach you children that if they feel like they need to keep someone a secret that they talk to or if they feel uncomfortable about how the conversation is going, please encourage them to report them to a parent, teacher, friend, school counselor or resource officer. Your child may feel that just cutting off communication is enough, but once they realize your child is not interested anymore they will move on to someone else that may not stop the conversation. You and your child could help protect someone just by being open and talking to someone.
If you are aware of sexting, please report the incident. Tell the school resource officer, counselor, principal, or parent. You can help stop the spread of the damaging information or picture. Also, please remember if you know and do not say anything about the picture you could face serious legal consequences. Protect yourself and protect those involved.
If you or anyone you know needs help dealing with risky teen behaviors, you can contact the Child Advocate at The Safe Place. Also, if you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, our number is 501-354-1884. You can also call the Crisis Line at 1-888-554-2501 or our Perryville location at 501-889-2030.
Leave a Reply