Kids on Social Media Websites

Since the web exists, we all heard that some problems relating to kids appeared.

Unfortunately, these perverts do not exist just in real life… They are also present on the web. Until now, parents could install an internet parental control blocking the websites considered dangerous. But that is not enough…

When internet appeared I remember my parents telling me to never communicate my name and address and other important data of my life through internet. At the beginning, it was pretty easy because there were not as many social media websites as now.

The more the world is getting at the cutting edge of technology, the more kids are in danger. Today, kids are so used to this tool that they do not even think something could be bad on it. Besides, through social media websites like Facebook or blogs, people (not just the kids) are likely to tell their life story and all their personal data and this tendency is becoming a norm…

I have just read this article and a number took me back : “CyberTipline, the nation's hotline for reporting sexual exploitation of children, received 223,374 reports in 2010, nearly double the number from 2009.”

The journalist also explains that with the increasing technology it allows those online pedophiles to reach the kids from everywhere and at any time they want. They can have access to the internet from their home, laptops, iPad, smartphones like IPhone…

That brings me to the strongest point of this article. Those kinds of persons are, today, able to find where the kids they are talking with live or are at the current moment. In fact, I think everybody saw on Facebook for example something like “whoever was at wherever with whoever”. This new social media tool is accessible through a smartphone GPS locator. With this tool the perverts can very easily and quickly find their prey.

To fight against that, there is not a lot of option. You cannot control the internet because it is too vast, but organizations are monitoring the most famous websites to seek out the pedophiles. So as a parent, the best solution is to keep an eye on what your child is doing online.

To conclude, once again we can see that there is not just good aspects of social media websites. Actually, in everything you can find the pros and cons. The internet is just like the real life: a jungle where the parents have to protect their progeny.