How To Protect Children From Internet Predators
Put in easy to understand terms, the old adage that has served many well over the years is either being ignored or not taught by parents namely: “Don’t talk to strangers”. Children who would never think of inviting a total stranger into their home and bedroom to introduce themselves and chat are being duped into doing just that and worse by first allowing contact with predators who gain the child’s confidence through persuasive, charming conversation over the internet.The child or teen feels safe behind their locked doors as they are pulled into a "just talking" relationship with the internet using pedophile. It has completely escaped their notice that a stranger has figuratively come into the house and made himself at home and is literally working on exploiting the "just talking" relationship as soon as possible. Some parents have reasoned with their children that if the police can fool men on the internet into believing they are children and arrest them for inappropriate contact with children. Could a teen or child, Who is far less experienced be fooled by an adult predator into believing he is a harmless teen or young adult? Many see the point. “But mom! that’s what these websites are for, meeting kids-letting others know who you are.” Many parents have heard this reply. As the parent , if you decide to permit your child to submit their profile to social network sites, as the protector of your family you must periodically examine what is on it and what is accessible to the public. If a network site does not have basic tools and settings that offer options for keeping private or going public, security settings, friend request/decline features, it will be best to look for one that does. Having and using these tools can reduce the exposure to unwanted adults visiting their member or user profile. Some webmasters are aggressive in finding and eliminating unqualified profilers, but they can not protect people from themselves. If a user has too much or the wrong kind of information for public viewing its an invitation for trouble. The social network My Space has over 120 million teenagers and young adult user profiles, that’s about twice the population of the nation of France. How many of that number are only masquerading as a youth is any ones guess. No matter how out of date or simplistic it may sound ,the proverb was never more useful than it is today: "Don't talk to strangers."
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