Sex Offenders on the Web

The Internet is the perfect place for a perverted sex offender. It’s teeming with young  kids, tweens, and teens, and access to these kids is as easy as one two three.

With over seventy billion users on the computer as we speak, it’s impossible to know who’s a threat, and who’s just checking their email.  We can block sites, put up lists and rules, and obtain passwords to social networking sites like Myspace, but the truth is sex offenders will still lurk the Internet, and there’s little we can do to stop this.

A sex offender often poses as a teenager, and learns the slang they speak in to “fit in..” They can be found with fake profile on Myspace, or in chat rooms amidst twenty, thirty, or a million real teens.  As such the signs of  a sex predator online are hard to determine, but if your child gets a suspicious message, or IM from a stranger claiming to be “looking for pics, or to meet in real life..” you should need to investigate.

The conversations may even start off more simple, and less threatening; they may speak of hobbies, cool interests, and ask basic questions to your child before heading in for the kill. This is what makes it impossible to know at first, who is a threat and who really is a teen looking to chat.

The best thing we can do as parents is to educate our children on the signs of a sex predator, or suspicious person on the Internet.  These signs can include: a random person seeming very interested in their lives, someone requesting to meet them at a local park, or even in your own home, strange photos sent to email via the Internet, or strange people in chat rooms.

So what can you do?

Keep your computer in a high traffic area, and monitor Internet use on a daily basis. Know who your kids are talking to online! Keep a list of friends, and passwords that you know your children are using, and engage them in conversation about their Internet lives – if they seem withdrawn, and mumble they have “something better to do..” there’s a chance something fishy is going on.

If you find your child clicks off the computer within seconds of you entering a room, ask what they were looking at! Check browsing history if you suspect strange activity, and report any odd conversations or websites to the authorities.

Many parents fear invading their child’s privacy is worst then trusting them, and we’d all like to believe our children know right from wrong, but the truth of the matter is sex predators, and those posing as teens online are good at what they do, and it’s easy for your child to not realize they are under virtual attack.

Know the signs of an online predator, and practice open communication throughout the family, is the first step in preventing an Internet predator coming into your home.

Tagged as: Chat Rooms, myspace, Perverted Sex, sex offender, Sex Offenders, Sex Predator, Social Networking Sites, Suspicious Person, Tweens