Pandora's Blog

The last couple of days everyone has weighed in on this new study – so I guess it’s my turn…

Study Facts
Title: Online “Predators” and Their Victims: Myths, Realities, and Implications for Prevention and Treatment
Origin: Crimes Against Children Center at the University of New Hampshire
Published: February/March issue of American Psychologist, a publication by the American Psychological Association (APA).

The study was based on three surveys—two comprising telephone interviews of a combined 3,000 Internet users between the ages of 10 and 17; first in 2000 and again in 2005; and one involving 612 interviews with federal, state and local law enforcement officials in the United States between October 2001 and July 2002.

First of all, why is the compiled data so old?

Findings

• Internet offenders pretended to be teenagers in only 5% of the crimes studied by researchers. Contrary to stereotype, most Internet sex offenders are not adults who target young children by posing as another youth, luring children to meetings, and then abducting or forcibly raping them. Rather, most online sex offenders are adults who target teens and seduce victims into sexual relationships. They take time to develop the trust and confidence of victims, so that the youth see these relationships as romances or sexual adventures. The youth most vulnerable to online sex offenders have histories of sexual or physical abuse, family problems, and tendencies to take risks both on- and offline.
• In spite of public concern, the authors of the study found that adolescents’ use of popular social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook do not appear to increase their risk of being victimized by online predators. Rather, it is risky online interactions such as talking online about sex to unknown people that increases vulnerability, according to the researchers. Youth who engaged in four or more risky online behaviors were much more likely to report receiving online sexual solicitations. The online risky behaviors included maintaining buddy lists that included strangers, discussing sex online with people they did not know in person and being rude or nasty online.

• Most Internet-initiated sex crimes involve adult men who are open about their interest in sex. The offenders use instant messages, e-mail and chat rooms to meet and develop intimate relationships with their victims. In most of the cases, the victims are aware that they are talking online with adults.

  

• Nearly 75% of victims who met offenders face-to-face did so more than once.
• Online sex offenders are seldom violent, and cases involving stalking or abduction are very rare.
• Boys who are gay or are questioning their sexuality may be more susceptible to Internet-initiated sex crimes than other populations. Researchers found boys were the victims in nearly one-quarter of criminal cases, and most cases included facts that suggested victims were gay or questioning their sexuality.

Once again, a new study means a new bandwagon to jump on. This time it’s the good ol “see, I told you so.” [In regards to accusations that the media is overhyping the Internet predator scenario]

See you told me what? Did this really debunk anything? Isn’t it kind of a known fact that predators are both ‘lurkers’ and just average sicko creepy guys who are upfront about their desires?

Does this decrease the amount of oldermen-looking-for-sex-with-teens on the net? No. Do a search online. Not a week goes by where there aren’t arrests in some part of the country of scumbags trying to solicit teens for sex. In most cases, they didn’t lie about anything. So where’s the myth stemming from?

Something that is even scarier is the number of instances where teens are meeting older guys for sex – with full consent. The predators aren’t lying. In fact, why bother to lie at all when there are so many teens will to take risks, there’s no reason to lie.

Either way, the study is interesting and definitely check it out – just don’t jump on the bandwagon. If anything, read between the lines here and acknowledge the fact that “grooming” is a larger epidemic… Are your kids being groomed? Do you know who your kids talk to on the Internet?

You would know if you were using PC Pandora 5.0 monitoring software to monitor your child’s Internet activity…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 2:56 PM and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.