Sexual Predators on the Internet

[lillibet]

Finally, a rational article (it's the NYT, so registration is required) about children and the Internet.

Comments

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Indeed!
My suspicion that the hype was way overblown was confirmed when James Kincaid, author of Erotic Innocence: The Culture of Child Molesting cited much of that same information as the keynote speaker at the Children's Literature Association Conference, suggesting that Americans are in love with the idea of children in danger from strangers with candy, internet predators, other anonymous threats etc, when in fact the real dangers faced by an exponentially larger number of children are, of course, within the home. Predictably, the audience did not receive his speech very well, with several agitated people standing up and announcing that their sister's brother-in-law's cousin's grandchild had been SEXUALLY MOLESTED ON THE INTERNET and did he ACTUALLY THINK THAT WAS OKAY???

I'd have to check to see if it's true, but I have a memory of Kincaid describing how when cops pose online as kids seeking out contact to find predators, and other cops pose online as predators to find other predators, half the time, when they set up stings, it's just two groups of cops meeting EACH OTHER because they basically outnumber the actual number of predators (ones brave enough to do more than talk) and kids (ones dumb/inexperienced enough to fall for predators) online... sigh...

[persis.livejournal.com]

Thanks for pointing me to this article.

My daughter, 12 now, spends a lot of time on AIM with her friends, watches tons of YouTube, and is generally pretty safe about it. Skype, on the other hand, I am not so sure about, as you can either type or speak, and she had someone friend her who thought she was much older because of her handle, which was a bit creepy. After I talked with him, and told him she was only 11, he was still interested in talking to her, so she defriended him and has not been on Skype much since then, and hasn't had the same issues with AIM. She and her friends have pretty definite ideas about what behavior is ok and what's not.

[vanguardcdk.livejournal.com]

I remember a few years back when I was visiting Nebraska a television ad came on for the guy running for the state attorney general. It was warning about sexual predators and was the most over-blown stereotyped and idiotic ad I had ever seen.

He was elected. Which leads me to worry about what people actually think.
:(

(although I noticed his re-election ad that was on the same subject was notably toned-down, if still overblown)

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

After I finished reading the article, I noticed it was by David Pogue. I've only read a couple of his tech articles, but I'm beginning to like him.