The problem is the chances of teens being harassed online or targeted by online sex predators also has increased.
Researchers have recently indicated that the popularity with communication sites such as MySpace and Facebook, has also given way to increase of other various chat rooms that open doors to predators.
“Popular social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook do not appear to increase their risk of being victimized by online predators. Rather, it is risky online interactions such as talking online about sex to unknown people that increases vulnerability,” says a report done by the American Psychological Association (APA).
“Most Internet-initiated sex crimes involve adult men who are open about their interest in sex,” said Janis Wolak, lead author of the study. The offenders use instant messages, e-mail and chat rooms to meet and develop intimate relationships with their victims. In most of the cases, the victims are aware that they are talking online with adults, comments Wolak.
“A majority of the offenders are charged with crimes such as statutory rape, that involve non-forcible sexual activity with adolescent victims who are too young to consent to sexual intercourse with adults,” she said.
One teenager shared her harrowing experience when she joined a local chat site called guamchat.com.
Jamie Matias, a recent graduate from Kagman High School, first started using email as communication at the age of 12 while in the 7th grade.
She started with MSN and then she created her own website with a social network site called Hi5.com. She added only friends and blocked those she didn’t know. Matias soon discovered guamchat.com and encountered her first predator in the instant messaging world.
“I went to this chat room call guamchat.com and a friend told me it was a cool place where you meet locals just like me and become friends with them,” Matias said.
“When I put my information, I basically just changed some things about me to not reveal too much, and this guy started chatting with me. He said he was from Guam and that he wanted to chat through my MSN messenger, and stupidly enough, I gave it to him,” she said.
“The thing was, for a couple moments, he told me all of his information and I didn’t even bother to check his profile. I was getting a bit annoyed by him because he has tried numerous times to get into sexual conversations. He told me about on how he was going to come to Saipan and visit me. With that, I started getting scared,” she added.
Matias realized that this person was not being truthful about himself. “I just felt uncomfortable about him. He looked into my MySpace page and commented me various times. Finally, I realized that I didn’t even check his profile. And when I did, I found out he wasn’t his age he told me, which was 19. He wasn’t from Guam, just everything was false,” she said.
Matias tried to block the older man from her homepage and messenger contact, but he continually tried to contact her.
“I blocked him from my page at MySpace because of that. I would warn other teens to watch where you go to find chat rooms and to privatize your profile. That’s the best way I could think of to prevent teens dealing with online sex offenders,” she said.
Current educational efforts are focused on discouraging children from giving out or posting personal information, warning about online deception and urging parents to monitor their children.
The APA report also indicated that nearly 75 percent of victims who met offenders face-to-face did so more than once.
Also, youths who engaged in four or more risky online behaviors were much more likely to report receiving online sexual solicitations.
The online risky behaviors included maintaining buddy lists that included strangers, discussing sex online with people they did not know in person and being rude or nasty online.
