We’ve all got to remember that we are all very vulnerable when visiting cyber space. The ones who take advantage and exploit us are often doing this purposely, either for sex or for money.  The ones usually being targeted are the younger adults and often children.

It seems though, most often, the victims are adolescents and the elderly who are being preyed upon. Experts recommend not providing any personal information such as a name, password, phone number, address, credit card, or even social security numbers; although this is not usually the case of worry amongst that of child predators.

When children are targeted, it is usually trying to get them to engage in sexual activities or discussions by an adult. It is usually unwanted exposure to sexual material (pictures); online harassment, threats or other aggressive communications that are not sexual in nature but cause distress, fear or embarrassment.

While online predators most often use chat and instant messaging, they also appear in other places. For example, Myspace has been accused of attracting online predators. A 2007 study, however, found no cases of minors being targeted by Internet predators on the basis of information they had posted on social networking sites.

Software that attempts to monitor computer activity has seen some popularity with parents concerned about Internet predators.

 Statistics

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children funded a study by the Crimes Against Children Resource Center in 2006 of youth Internet users over a five-year period. They found::

• An increase in encountering unwanted exposures to sexual material (from 25% to 34%)
• An increase in cases of online harassment (from 6% to 9%)
• A decrease in those receiving unwanted sexual solicitations (from 19% to 13%)
• 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.

Online predators are very keen on what to say and do. When chatting online, we recommend that you keep all personal information out of dialogue for your own protection. While the Internet can be a fun place, you’ve got to remember it is a very dangerous one too. Err on the side of caution always, and play safe.