Tag Archives: Child predators

I HAD NO IDEA: A Story from a Mother whose Child was Sexually Abused by a Family Member.

Thank you to Karina who has shared her personal and sad story in the most public way. Megan I have four children, three girls and one boy. My husband died suddenly and I moved towns to live with my mother and step father. My mother married my stepfather when I was in my early teens. I have five full blood sisters and a half brother to my mother’s second marriage. I would have said we were a great blended family, supportive of each other, until my daughter disclosed that my stepfather was sexually abusing her. My older girls had attended … Continue reading →

Teaching Teenagers About The Danger Of Internet Predators

It is summer and the average teenager is online 5.5 hours a day, with about 77 million on-line each day. Most are visiting one of the 40,000 chat rooms where according to a 2002 FBI report there is a 100% chance they will encounter a pedophile at some time. What is the danger with chat rooms? The Safe Surfin Foundation says that the danger is that “75% of children and teens report sharing personal information about them and their families to complete strangers in chat rooms.” Child predators use the tidbits of information that they glean from on-line chat rooms … Continue reading →

How Does Pornography Reach Our Children?

Pornography is a billion dollar business with about 62% of users on the Internet at any given time accessing pornographic sites, that’s about 70 million people a week. According to the Nielsen/Net Ratings in 2002 nearly 16 percent of visitors to adult pornographic websites are under age 18. Adam West, a families.com computer writer lists statistics about internet child predators in his blog. With so much pornographic material out there it is likely that your children will view some at some point. So how does pornography reach our kids? There are a number of ways that our children can be … Continue reading →

Online National Sex Offender Public Registry

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Yesterday, I reported again on the ongoing series that Dateline NBC is doing about Internet predators (you can read my first report here). Today, I want to point out a Department of Justice Web site that you may want to check out. It is the National Sex Offender Public Registry. You may be surprised to find out who is or is not living near your neighborhood. National Sex Offender Public Registry www.nsopr.gov I know that this isn’t the most fun topic to talk about, but we need to keep raising awareness in others if we are going to help protect … Continue reading →

Child Predators exposed on national TV

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Dateline NBC is back again with it’s fourth installment of exposing online child predators. “To Catch a Predator IV” began its four-part run on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 on NBC. You can catch the rest of the series each of the next three Wednesdays, beginning on May 3, 2006 at 9:00 p.m. ET. Go to Dateline’s Web site for a re-cap on previous investigations. Two years ago, Dateline began a series of investigations they call, “To Catch a Predator.” With help from local law enforcement and Perverted-Justice.com, Chris Hansen leads the investigations to expose adults trolling the Internet looking for … Continue reading →

Reporting online child predators – The CyberTipline

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Plenty of adults do not know where or how to report incidents involving child predators or child sexual exploitation. Often, if parents or teachers find out about children who have been sexually solicited or targeted, they do not report the incidents. When adults do report incidents, often they stop short of filing reports with local law enforcement or a national child protection agency. Luckily, there are numerous resources for reporting sex crimes involving children. One of which I want to introduce is the CyberTipline. If you missed an earlier blog about the epidemic of online child sex crimes, you can … Continue reading →

The epidemic of online child sexual crimes

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The issue of keeping children safe from online child predators has steadily increased over the past few years. From newspapers (e.g., New York Times) to news journal shows (e.g., Dateline NBC) to popular daytime shows (e.g., Oprah), the topic has been discussed. I am amazed, however, at the number of parents, teachers, and adults who still think that the epidemic of online predators is not really an important issue. Yes, that’s right. I call it an epidemic. Thousands of children each year worldwide are solicited and even abducted as a result of participating in unmonitored online activities. It’s time for … Continue reading →

Teaching Children About Child Molesters

With child abuse numbers so high it is important that parents educate their children. Teaching children to be wary of strangers is not enough, since about 90% of abuse cases happen with an adult that the child knows and respects. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children stresses that parents need to teach their children using “clear, calm, reasonable messages about situations and actions to look for.” What We Need To Teach Our Children Child Help USA, an organization that offers support to children who have been abused or neglected, provides a list of prevention tips for parents to … Continue reading →