What Dangers Do Children Face While Online?
As a concerned parent it is important that you understand the various dangers children can face while online. The Internet has a wealth of content; however, due to the freedom of the Internet much of that content can be distasteful and dangerous to your child. It is easy to find material on various topics that would shock the average caring parent. Material such as sexually explicit material; hate group and racist sites; promotional material about tobacco, alcohol, or drugs; graphic violence, satanic or other cult information; or even recipes on how to make dangerous explosives are all just a click away.
A survey commissioned by Cox Communications and NCMEC found that:
* Over half (51%) of parents either do not have or do not know if they have software on their computers that monitors where their children go online and with whom they interact.
* 30% of parents allow their children to use the computer in private areas of the house such as a bedroom or a home office.
Sexually explicit material is rampant on the Internet. Type in any innocuous term in a search engine and you can stumble across any number of sexually explicit web sites. Children could be doing research for school or trying to get to their favorite harmless web site and easily stumble across one of these sites.
Probably the scariest danger of the Internet is that with all the prevalent sexual material comes the sexual predator. The predator is a slick and wily character cloaked in sheep clothing and lurking in common child populated areas of the Net. Not long ago we saw commercials and TV shows about the predator hanging out at the playground. Well, now they don't have to leave the privacy of their own homes. They can prey at any number of online playgrounds without the fear of exposure.
Unfortunately, the very nature of children make them more susceptible to this sort of individual. Children lack emotional maturity that allows them to be more easily manipulated and intimidated. Couple that with a strong sense of belonging and the need to be accepted which can further compound the issue. Also, children are taught from an early age that they are to obey adults -- granted we, also, teach our children to not talk to strangers. However, a sexual predator can easily manipulate a child into thinking that they are a safe adult, or even possibly, an adult that they know and trust.
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