Online Predators (Part 1 of 2)

The greatest threat to your children is the people they meet online and in the neighborhood. Child predators are more prevalent than most parents

want to admit. Predators depend on your child’s natural curiosity, innocence, and trusting nature. The internet provides an effective way to make the first contact with your child. The predator is no longer restricted to only children in one neighborhood in one location at one time.

On the internet, they usually don’t need to worry about the person accompanying the child or the person observing “suspicious behavior” from the next aisle or down the street. The predator doesn’t need to worry about an observer or camera describing their physical appearance. They can describe themselves online as any age, race or build that suits their purpose at the time. They can lure your child to meet at a location near your house. Pre-teens and teenagers are especially vulnerable to child predators online. Remember that the predator can look or sound like anyone (a family member, friend, a respectable community member), and be of any age, race, nationality, intelligence, economic status, profession or occupation.

How Predators Find Children

Predators try to contact children any way they can. The initial contact is usually through conversations. The conversations can be through whatever form is available or convenient. Online conversations can happen in chat rooms at websites or video games, instant messaging, email, discussion boards or forums. Some teenagers use peer-support online forums to handle problems. These forums can be very helpful but not so when predators are there searching for prey.

The predator will typically get to know your child, develop a friendship, sympathize with their problems, share their interests and find your child’s unique vulnerability to lure your child away from your safe home. Part of the seduction by predators is through their undivided attention, apparent kindness or affection and sometimes gifts. Some predators immediately introduce sexually explicit conversation and pictures. This can develop quickly into harassment or stalking. Or the predator can be evaluating your child for a future face-to-face encounter. It could be your child is always willing to help someone in trouble or perhaps your child thinks home life could be better somewhere else. Child predators do not care if their prey (your child) is well adjusted, maladjusted, happy, or unhappy. Every person has a trait that under particular circumstances, manipulated by the predator, can be exploited to cause the person or child to leave their secure surroundings just for a few minutes. That is all it takes.