Sexual Predator: It’s the universal parent nightmare. The term alone sends shock-waves through every bone in our body. We also know online predators do exist, are a very real threat, and use the anonymity of the Internet fully to their advantage.
Predators can be a he or a she, young or old, rich or poor, any race or zip code, but they have one commonality: they are master manipulators when it comes to children.
Online predators rarely swoop in and quickly lure kids into meeting at the local park. Instead, they build a relationship with the child online and slowly develop trust. The “grooming process” can take several months with the predator working to create a comfortable bond with the child. Predators are using more subtle and savvier ways to “befriend” kids. They often pretend to be another teen or child to try and form a relationship. And that’s why this next new research finding is particularly troubling.
4 in 5 Kids Can’t Tell An Adult from Child Online
For the past several months students from various ages have been taking part in experiments designed to help researchers know how to create the right software to track pedophiles online. The 350 children and teens are from the Queen Elizabeth School, Kirby Lonsdale, Cumbria. The funded project is part of the Economic and Social Research Council/Engineering and Physical Science Research Council. Findings should be a wake-up call:
- Four out of five children can’t tell when they are talking to an adult posing as a child on the Internet; four out of five kids thought they were chatting to a teen when in fact it was an adult.
- Students as old as 17 struggled to tell the difference between an adult posing as a child or a real child “befriending” them online.
- Overall only 18% of children taking part in the experiment guessed correctly.
- The good news (there is some!): the computer software did “significantly better correctly working out whether web chat was written by a child or an adult in 47 out of 50 cases–even when the adult was pretending to be a child.”
Related:
- Internet Safety Resources for Parents
- Tips to Keep Kids Safe from Online Predators
- Are You Ruining Your Kids' Social Lives?
- 5 Tips to Help Shy Kids
- How Strong Are Your Child's Friendship-Building Skills?
- Are You Raising Kids Who Don't Know How To Play?
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