User:Kimsubizmom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CyberSafety is a term used to promote safe and responsible use of the internet and other electronic mediums. This term could be applied to safe and effective use for financial and personal information and transactions. But it is most commonly associated with parents who are concerned their children will be exposed to online victimization attempts while using the internet. [1] can include solicited/unsolicited requests to engage in sexual activities or discussions by an adult; unwanted exposure to sexual material (opening junk mail with naked pictures, etc); online harassment , threats or other aggressive communications that aren’t sexual in nature but cause distress or fear.
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[edit] Statistics and Trends
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children funded a study by the Crimes Against Children Resource Center and found in 2006 that youth Internet users over a five year period[2]: • Increase in encountering unwanted exposures to sexual material (from 25% to 34%) • Increase in cases of online harassment (from 6% to 9%) • Decrease in those receiving unwanted sexual solicitations (from 19% to 13%) Other stats include: • 4% of all youth Internet users said online solicitors asked them for nude or sexually explicit photographs of themselves. • Only a minority of youth who had unwanted sexual solicitations, unwanted exposures to sexual material, or harassment said they were distressed by the incidents. • One-third of the solicitations (31%) were aggressive meaning the solicitors made, or attempted, offline contact with youth.
[edit] Online Victimization Examples
There are lots of examples ranging from minor incidents to murder. This list came from the Online Victimization of Youth report[1].
Girl, 12: A man in his 30s “asked me to describe myself and to stick a pen in my private parts and set up a digital camera and show the parts of my body.”
Boy, 15: A girl in her teens “asked me to get naked on ‘cam’ but I just ignored her.”
Girl, 16: “I was…instant messag[ing] and the boy, who was a friend that I had known for a long time, asked me to [xxx] myself in front of the web cam. I just told him that if he ever asked me that again, I would never talk to him again.”
Girl, 17: A man in a chatroom “offered me $1,000 to expose myself to him. I recorded [what he wrote] and gave it to the police.”
Girl, 15 formed a close online relationship with a man in his 30s. He urged her to run away from home and stay with him. She stayed with him for several days and was sexually assaulted.
Girl, 16 was at a party with a man she met online. He tried to rape her. (Both of these cases were reported to law enforcement.)
[edit] Parental Controls
Using education and technology, parents can help mitigate the chances of their own child being a victim. Youth are spending more and more time online. Even using social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook to share their personal information and lives online with their friends. The downside that this is information sexual predators can use to victimize youth. Fortunately both of these sites are taking steps to help protect their members. Monitoring and restricting your childs activity using parental control software could also help mitigate their risk. As a parent you could potentially be able to identify at risk situations that your child may not.
