Where Are All The Predators?

The other day I was watching the tube, and one of those "beware of online predator" commercials came on the air. You know the type: a screen-shot of a chat room, with Innocent675 saying, "What's your favorite color?" A response by Youngkid12 saying, "I like blue, and vanilla ice cream is good too!!!" Then Innocent675 says, "Let's meet at the mall on Tuesday."

Smash cut to a shot of Innocent675's creepy man-hand on a mouse, while scary music plays and a voice-over warns us about online perverts.

After seeing the latest dire warning, the thought occurred to me: "Just how many predators are really on the internet hunting for young kids?"

The way the media has it, there's a weirdo lurking in every chatroom.

Turns out, it's hype.

I thought it might be. Nothing sells like fear, and the fear for children sells the highest of all. Here's an interesting report from the Crimes Against Children Research Center, debunking a lot of online myths. The most striking to me is the one that is often portrayed as the MO of perverts: posing as teens to prey on unsuspecting kids. In fact, only 5% of them ever pose as children themselves.

Other myths, as reported by mcclatchydc.com:

Internet predators are driving up child sex crime rates.
Finding: Sex assaults on teens fell 52 percent from 1993 to 2005, according to the Justice Department's National Crime Victimization Survey, the best measure of U.S. crime trends. "The Internet may not be as risky as a lot of other things that parents do without concern, such as driving kids to the mall and leaving them there for two hours," Wolak said.

Internet predators are pedophiles.
Finding: Internet predators don't hit on the prepubescent children whom pedophiles target. They target adolescents, who have more access to computers, more privacy and more interest in sex and romance, Wolak's team determined from interviews with investigators.

Internet predators represent a new dimension of child sexual abuse.
Finding: The means of communication is new, according to Wolak, but most Internet-linked offenses are essentially statutory rape: nonforcible sex crimes against minors too young to consent to sexual relationships with adults.

Internet predators trick or abduct their victims.
Finding: Most victims meet online offenders face-to-face and go to those meetings expecting to engage in sex. Nearly three-quarters have sex with partners they met on the Internet more than once.

Internet predators meet their victims by posing online as other teens.
Finding: Only 5 percent of predators did that, according to the survey of investigators.

Online interactions with strangers are risky.
Finding: Many teens interact online all the time with people they don't know. What's risky, according to Wolak, is giving out names, phone numbers and pictures to strangers and talking online with them about sex.

Internet predators go after any child.
Finding: Usually their targets are adolescent girls or adolescent boys of uncertain sexual orientation, according to Wolak. Youths with histories of sexual abuse, sexual orientation concerns and patterns of off- and online risk-taking are especially at risk.

You can read the full article here.