I was watching an older episode of Oprah today and it was a show addressing the dangers of internet predators. A man by the name of Flint Walters devotes his entire life to tracking online predators of children. He developed child pornography tracking software and uses it to help track online activity of these men. He was interviewed by Oprah and stated that since the interent has become mainstream, he just can't keep up with tracking the volume of predators lurking on the Net. It's hard for him to leave work because he knows that children are being raped and molested live on the web and broadcast and it's like he's turning his back temporarily on them while he goes home. I fully commend this man (and others who work in a similar capacity at such a job) because it must be extremely difficult to work at a job like that. He mentioned that it was also very difficult to prosecute these individuals. The internet provides a sense of anonymity for these men to make them feel invincible. Flint also mentioned on the program that because of the power of the networked world, the predators get a sense that "Oh, I see other people are doing it, so it must be ok."
Oprah kept stressing the point that statistics say that molestation is most likely to occur at the hands of someone you know. What's important to remember is the internet predator is the same person who sits next to you at church, it's your child's coach, family member...it's not necessarily a scary-looking man.
So what can we do? First and foremost, we need to educate our students about internet predators. I don't think we do this enough. Kids are on computers every day. We teach them about cyberbullying, but what about "stranger danger" on the Net, too? Check out this news article from The Gillette News featuring Flint Walters and his feelings towards chat rooms and what parents can do to help their children avoid such dangers.
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