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New Study on Child Online Experiences with Predators

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

An interesting study was released that shows most of the unwanted solicitation of minors actually happens in chat rooms and via instant messaging. [Study comes from February issue of Pediatrics]

Steven Reinberg of HealthDay Reporter compiled a report here: Social Networking Sites Safer Than IM or Chat Rooms. I, of course, encourage reading his article - it’s very good - but here is a summary of the findings and our position on the matter:

The study collected data on 1,588 children aged 10 to 15 years old. The children were asked about their online experiences over the past year.

Among these children, 15 percent said they had an unwanted sexual solicitation. Only one-fourth of these occurred on a social networking site.

33 percent said they were harassed online; about one-fourth of the incidents occurred on a social networking site.

However, 43 percent of unwanted sexual solicitations occurred via instant messaging, and 32 percent occurred in chat rooms. Harassment was most common with instant messaging, which accounted for 55 percent.

Reinberg quotes the head of the study as saying, “We need to stop worrying about social networking sites and pay more attention to what young people are doing online generally.”

THIS IS EXACTLY RIGHT. Predators are out there – everywhere. It doesn’t matter where you go, they can easily strike up a conversation with your child. Don’t be so quick to think that if they avoid social networking websites, your kids will be OK. In fact, instant messaging is a form of social networking that can host the same threats.

It’s important for parents to step up and monitor ALL activity. Assume your child is never 100% safe. The Internet is a big place – it’s a great place, but it has hidden dangers like the rest of the world. Know what your kids are doing… and take advantage of available technology like our soon-to-be-released PC Pandora monitoring software version 5.0!!