Sexual predators defraud where ever and when ever they can. Like trolls prettied up as princes, they permeate every part of society and pick their targets from where ever they can access them: including the internet. They know no class or gender bounds; they instead pick anyone who falls for their fraudulent and cowardly manipulation. Their net casts over us all, yes, even those members on families.com. Be careful, be warned, be vigilant of whom you share personal information with. I have already had a dubious contact through families.com. It was dealt with, the person banned immediately, and there has been no further incident.
Partial attraction of internet forums is the anonymity and freedom to state your views without fear of being ostracized in real life. Predators know this and they will trick you into revealing far too much personal information about yourself. They hide behind the anonymity and create personas that match yours. Even recently, a young person posing as a married Mom in her mid 20’s (Recently Departed Member Kayla x) chatted away merrily to us, offering advise and support. While she or he may have been a teenager just having some fun, the situation has highlighted a need for vigilance and protection.
Donna Rice Hughes from Protect kids.com clearly states that: “Child sexual exploitation occurs in every economic, social, ethnic, and religious group. With the explosion of the Internet into a powerful, worldwide medium, the danger to children, whether they are from New York or New Zealand, has drastically increased. Pedophiles and other sexual predators can use the Internet, with no precautions, to exchange names and addresses of other pedophiles and of potential child victims. Hidden behind screen names that are pseudonyms, they gather online and swap child pornography with amazing speed and in amounts beyond our wildest imagination, which excites them to molest even more.”
While the worth of the internet is priceless to internet predators, think of the real cost of sexual abuse. In How Much Does Sexual Violence Cost? it is suggested that rape is the costliest crime for victims in the United States, with annual costs to victims estimated at $127 billion (this estimate does not include child sexual abuse). Further, they state, “the average cost of being a rape victim is estimated at $110,000. This compares with victim costs of $16,000 for robbery, and $36,000 for drunk driving.”
Amazing and despicable. I am tired of women carrying the burden of cost – both emotionally and financially. It is time to stop ALL sexual violence, no matter where it occurs. Because we all use the internet to talk and share with each other, this is a good place for each of us to start. I would never have considered families.com if this was not a safe and abuse vigilant site. However, the vigilance is down to all of us reporting suspicious and dubious activity and comments to the community manager, Lisa Pietsch. We are this site. We have the power to stop internet predators. We have the power to protect all people from the endemic pus of sexual violence. We don’t need to hide, we are doing nothing wrong. We do share names and birthdates because we are a community, a family. The predators who attempt to use the information against us need to change. We will not be manipulated into hiding. We will however, be motivated to report against those who dare to permeate our space.
This year, I have opted to organize a Reclaim and Take Back the Night emarch against sexual violence on the internet and in the physical realm. As a collective and borderless internet community, we need to let the net predators know that their behavior will not be tolerated. We will watch, we will tell, we will act. Predatory behavior on the internet is no less damaging than predatory behavior in our neighborhood. It is however, MORE intrusive, MORE achievable, and MORE sneaky.
I for one am happy to stand up and say, NO MORE.
Who’s chatting to you because you haven’t shown a strong boundary around sexual violence? Who thinks they can manipulate you into sharing even more information? More importantly, who’s chatting to your kids?
If you live in the United States and would like to receive email notification about sexual offenders who have moved into your area, please register with Megans-Law.net. In Australia? Visit here to support Australian Parents for Megan’s Law. A cold arctic wind has blown across Megan’s Law in the U.K. Read a recent news version here.
Related articles:
New Product: PredatorWatch Protects Your Kids From Online Predators
Online National Sex Offender Public Registry
Internet safety: Sign a Family Contract
Sexual Predators Groom for Silence
Parents Need to Monitor Teens Online Usage
My FAVORITE child focused article of the day:
Bitss of Caramel Marmalade on Toast by Tristi Pinkston. Thank you Tristi. It is a beautiful review of my junior fiction chapter book on protective behaviors.