Predator Facts

"In New Jersey, Majalie Cajuste is grieving the murder of her daughter Judy. The 14-year-old reportedly told friends she met a man in his 20s through MySpace.com."

"Across the country, in Northern California, friends are mourning 15-year-old Kayla Reed. She was active on MySpace until the day she disappeared."

 These are a couple of stories parents, friends or guardians would hate to hear happen to their close ones. But just the fact of not knowing who snatched a child up or why is just alarming because where would you start? Who can you accuse? Where can you look?
 Predators can be dressed up as anyone in today's society. There could be just an everyday man who has a full time job with a family and kids turning out to be a predator. Or the predator might just be a typical bum who has no life and is messed up in the head a little and seeks to take control of younger children or teenagers. Social networking predators could be all around us and you may not even know this at all. The one thing we do know is the facts and past rends of these predators. TimesDaily.com states these facts about social networking predators:

"94-96 percent of Internet child sexual predators are male and generally range in age from 13 to 65."

"89 percent of all sexual solicitations are made in either chat rooms or other social networking systems."

"24 percent students say they have visited inappropriate places online."

"More than 29 percent of students say they have given out personal information over the Internet."

"28 percent of students say they have seen something on the Internet that they would consider dangerous."

"One out of 7 children, ages 10-17, will experience unwanted sexual solicitation online."

"Approximately 12.5 percent of male offenders are married; 1.5 percent are divorced and 89 percent are single."

"40 percent of online sexual solicitations of youth begin with an instant message."

"About one-third of youths admit to regularly communicating online with people they do not know in person."

Throughout these facts they simply show how the predators choose who they want to "prey" on and how kids usually give them the ability to. When kids give out their own personal information, home address, phone numbers, house location, etc. It makes the predators jobs way easier because they have everything they need and more make their very own guest appearance when the child parents aren't home. This is why it's on the parents and children shoulders to monitor who they talk to and who they give information to. You just might be talking to anyone.

Hot Indie News.  3,500 NY Sex Offenders Taken Off Social Networking Sites.  1 Dec. 2009.   <http://www.hotindienews.com/2009/12/01/1015485>.

Kreiser, John.  Myspace: Your Kids' Danger.  6 Feb. 2006.   http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/06/eveningnews/main1286130.shtml.

Smith, Tom.  Hidden Predators.  26 Apr. 2008 at 11:41 p.m.  27 Apr. 2008 at 3:30 a.m.  http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20080427/news/804270353?title=hidden-predators.

Social Networking Predators. How They Do It?

In today's society adults and teens lives revolve around social networking. For instance Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and many other social networking sites. This gives criminals and molesters new gateways to succeed in what they do. For a criminal to create a site is easier then tying your shoe. For example signing up for facebook is only a couple of easy steps.

1. First Name & Last Name
2. Email Address & Re-Enter Email Address
3. Password & Re-Enter Password
4. Date of Birth & The Persons Sex
5. A Couple of Security Questions & Personal Questions
6. Last, Add Friends

This is a simple task to complete and if someone desperate enough to be able to lure a child or teen in to a trap, this is very possible because it takes no effort at all. It would be so easy to lie and say my is "Eugene Smith, I am 16 years old, I am homeschooled, I live in Dallas, Texas, and I am a football player for my local youth team." After a predator post a couple of pictures of some random kid from a different city or state, kids that he/she talks to around the age of the false person can easily get that mistaken for a real child just trying to make conversation with the child about their hobbies, interest, everyday life and maybe even personal problems with the child until they get really comfortable talking to each other. This is how preadators may become so successful succeeding in what they do.

Jernigan, Rachel.  Internet Predators and Child Pornography .  30 Mar. 2009 10:55 am.   <www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=24824 >.

Asleigh's Tragedy on Facebook

Many people every year, especially young girls get caught up in a trap made by sex offenders who pretend to be someone else. There are a lot of sick, nasty minded people in the world that use social networks to get close to girls. Like in the case of 17 year old girl, Ashleigh Hall. She met this boy on face book who supposedly had an interest on her but it was all a lie. This so call boy “Pete” was actually a 33 year old sex offender, Peter Chapman. Peter Chapman started getting close to Ashleigh even to the point that they started texting each other so one day “Pete” told Ashleigh it was time for them to meet and that his dad (who would be Peter), would pick her up. So Ashleigh all excited and ready to meet “Pete”, told her mom she was staying over a friend’s house, but she was actually meeting up with “Pete”. Chapman had everything planned out; he acted like “Pete’s dad” and picked her up where they were supposed to meet. Instead of Ashleigh going to mere “Pete”, she was taken to a disserted lay-by, where "he bound her wrist, mouth, and nose with duct tape" (Norfolk). Not only was she rapped but also died slowly suffocating by the tape that was on her mouth and nose. Chapman was convicted and charged for 35 years in jail. Her family was sad and her mom, Andrea Hall, is now urging parents to keep an eye on their kids when using face book. Her mom stated “Ashleigh made one mistake and she paid for it with her own life” (Norfolk). People need to be aware that there are people who lie and put fake pictures of them just to get girls or children to be friends for they could fall into their trap.

Source:
Norfolk, Andrew."Sex offender Peter Chapman killed girl after posing as a teenager on Facebook." The Times. Co.uk. The Sunday Times. Web. 27 Nov. 2010.

Cartoon-Characters-on-Facebook Child Abuse Awareness or Created by Pedop...

Cartoons, Facebook, and YOUR Children

A new trend on facebook was recently on the news about pedophiles putting pictures of cartoons as their profile pictures to get minors to add them as friends. The facebook trend was started by a pedophile group who started putting pictures of their "favorite" cartoons when they were children and started telling all of their friends to do it and to tell all of their friends to do it.

This was soon figured out by teens when the original people of the group began to add teens with their favorite childhood cartoons as their pictures. The pedophiles would then message them talking to them about their childhood and then asking the teens to meet up and "hangout". that is not what these group members intended on doing though.

I believe it is extremely disgusting when you cant even get on a social network to talk to your friends anymore without having too fear being raped or sexually harassed. trends like this on facebook happen all the time, it's just another way for people to prey on children with their sick interests.

Internet Safety

Tips All Parents Should Use

Parents should always keep track of their children's; activities on the Internet. Parents, if your children are members of any social networks or blogs sites, he or she should have a set of ground rules and guidelines they should follow before posting any information online. Children should never post personal information, address, phone number, school, etc.... Parents should make their children aware that if they post something it is permanent and cannot be taken back. The rules about talking to strangers in a public places should also be included for the computer. Here are a few recommendations that I found online to keep children safe while surfing the Internet.

• Computers should be kept in an open room (family room or kitchen) not in any bedrooms.




• A time limit should be set for being online.




• Know what site your child is visiting and what they are posting.




• Educate your child on the dangers of the Internet, it is not always private and any information given out can be tracked back to him or her.




• Open chatrooms should never be used.




• Passwords should never be shared with anyone but a parent.




• Parents should have all passwords.




• Never pretend to be someone else.




• Never say anything you would not say face to face.
  

source:

MySpace, Facebook, Weblogs, for Teenagers; What do Parents Need to Know.

BlaneySue. Ezine Articles. 201o. Web. 10 November 2010.

Parents and Safety

When the parents think about their children's safety, the last thing he or she thinks about is the dangers that may be lurking on Internet social network sites. Today's children can navigate social network sites such as, FaceBook and My Space with much more ease than most adults. I know of at least three times just this week alone that I had to ask my twelve year old son how to work the privacy setting on my FaceBook account.

According to ten parents that I surveyed this week, most children spend an abundant amount of hours each week on these social network sites, talking to others that he or she believe are the same age and have similar interest such as, going to the same school or various other places around town. The truth is, most times the child is talking to who their supposed to be, however, there are cases where children may be talking to strangers, and the child may feel safe and willing to answer any questions they may be asked, no matter how personal the question may be. For example, Tina, one of the parents I surveyed, twelve year old daughter was instant messaging (IM) on FaceBook, who she believed to be her friend, and later found out it was his mother trying to get information about her son.

This is one situation that workout safely in the end, but it could have had a very different ending if she would have been talking to a pedophile, kidnapper or murder. Parents are almost always aware of where their children go, and with whom, when he or she leaves home. As parents we should also take the same approach with our children when he or she are on any Internet social network sites.

Sources

B, Doug. Personal Interview. 26 October 2010.

C, john. Personal Interview. 30 October 2010.

C, Virginia. Personal Interview. 30 October 2010.

E, Debbie. Personal Interview. 28 October 2010.

E, Phyllis. Personal Interview. 30 October 2010.

H, Amy. Personal Interview. 28 October 2010.

L, Tina. Personal Interview. 26 October 2010.

P, Jennifer. Personal Interview. 28 October 2010.

P, Jimmy. Personal Interview. 28 October 2010.

Picture Source

Balaraman, Arvind. School Kid. Web. 31 October 2010. http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Children_g112-School_Kid_p12098.html

Intro of social networks

A lot of people today, like to chat with friends or meet new people that share the same interest using today’s social networks. Many people now live on their profiles created online, they post new things every hour, expressing how they feel, what they are doing and putting new pictures. What they don’t realize that once something goes online, it’s going to stay there where people can view it. What people aren’t aware of is that it isn’t safe to be socializing with people online because people don’t know who they are really talking to or end up being. Social network are dangerous because people can lie, mislead or even hurt people emotionally and physically. For example, Megan Meier was a thirteen year old girl who became a victim to a predator and committed suicide on November 2007. She committed suicide because one of her friend’s mom wanted to hurt her for hurting her daughter so she posed as a boy interested in her and mislead her into thinking they were in love and later crushed her dreams by saying he did not love her and humiliated her. The mom stated “she wanted to get Megan to feel like she was liked by a boy and let everyone know this was false in MySpace and have everyone laugh at her” (Pokin). An innocent life was lost and many more have been lost because people have hurt them emotionally or posed false information causing them to feel insignificant and not worthy of living. Cyber bullying is a new topic that has emerged due to social networks. Students go online and write mean statements about each other. Some students may take this aggression seriously and cause them to believe the statements and in return hurt themselves or the bullying. Cyber bullying Research Center states that 40% of United State kids have being teased, harassed and tormented online by their peers (Sparano). Social Networks were created for people to be able to reconnect with past friends and meet new but social networks have become dangerous because people misuse it to hurt each other.

Sources:

Pokin, Steve. “Pokin Around: A real person, a real death.” Stcharlesjournal.stltoday.com.

10 November 2007. Web. 16 October 2010.

Sparano, Nina. “Cyberbullying affects 40 percent of kids.”Chicagotribune.com. 5 October 2010. Web. 16 October 2010.

Picture Source:

Sfantoo. “Virtual Suicide.” Prabaharan.wordpress.com. Web. 17 October. 2010.

Social Networking Security Awareness - MindfulSecurity.com