Nowadays, almost all kids use the Internet in order to get access to an immense database of information on entertainment, study, and travel among others. Unfortunately, the Internet is not only a great way of sharing information but also a network allowing predators to pursue their unhealthy interests and fixations. Many pedophiles use modern IT technologies in order to locate and interact with children in a horrifyingly efficient manner, making adolescents more exposed to abuse than ever before. Even though the idea of predators approaching teens and preteens in the comfort of their own rooms via webcams and chat platforms is a horrifying image, it happens more often than any society would like to admit.
Most online pedophiles are males (Holmes & Holmes, 2009). They usually suffer from low self-esteem, fear of intimacy, and often display a lack of empathy (TheLip TV, 2015). According to Holmes and Holmes (2009), the majority of child predators “had some form of child pornography in their possession at the time of arrest” (p. 113). It means that there is a connection between watching explicit materials involving children, which is in itself a form of child abuse, and becoming a molester (DOJ, 2015; Internet Safety 101, 2016). Online predators seeking to exploit a young person can pretend to be a child in order to establish trust. Sometimes they reveal their true age and pose as individuals who are especially interested in a child’s hobbies and activities. As a part of the grooming process, online predators might engage in flattery and gift-giving. They explore information posted by children and teens on their personal profiles in social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr among others in order to learn more about a child’s personality which will allow them to better manipulate their victims (Swan, 2015). These social media apps, and especially ones like Kik and Tinder that are not supposed to be used by underage individuals, open the door to people who are willing to use them for inappropriate purposes. Even the most benign apps like Snapchat and Reddit can expose children and teenagers to adult content and make them an easy target for victimization (Swan, 2015).
In order to deter criminal behavior aimed at children and teenagers online, law enforcement agencies, tech giants like Google and Facebook as well as nonprofit projects like the Thorn Lab develop new solutions for identifying and locating predators (O’Brien, 2015). A web-based application recently launched by the Thorn Lab allows identifying 2,186 traffickers and predators per year (Thorn, 2017, para. 4). The tool has significantly streamlined the process of victim and perpetrator identification, thereby saving 60 percent of the critical time on average (Thorn, 2017, para. 4). In addition to providing officers with massive amounts of data on potential online predators and traffickers, the Thorn Lab makes sure that small-size companies are equipped with the knowledge necessary to secure their platforms and make them less vulnerable to inappropriate content (Thorn, 2017).
Even though significant progress has been achieved in the battle against online predators, “more than 100, 000 kids in the U.S. alone are thought to be at risk of being trafficked online” (O’Brien, 2015, para. 6). I would address this problem by improving the level of law enforcement and tech industry collaboration with the help of a government decree providing a private sector with motivation to aid officers in identifying and locating online child predators.
References
DOJ. (2015). Child pornography. Web.
Holmes, R., & Holmes, S. (2009). Sex crimes: Patterns and behavior (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Internet Safety 101. (2016). What is pornography? An introduction. Web.
O’Brien, S. (2015).Ashton Kutcher launches tech lab to fight child sexual exploitation. Web.
Swan, S. (2015). The apps strangers use to reach children. Web.
TheLip TV. (2015).Darknet sexual predators & child abuse prevention with Francy Hakes. Web.
Thorn. (2017). How we work. Web.