Nowadays there are almost daily headlines about online sexual predators, but it's often hard to catch these folks given most of the digital communication tools available to your teen. More and more teens are becoming Internet and communicating savvy utilizing the latest tools and software available. Online predators are no different in that they can head to great lengths to communicate and draw out you're teen. As a parent it's important to understand the tools you're teen uses to communicate, what they're doing online as well as the potential information you're teen is giving out.

Exactly what do an on the web predator learn about you're child?

I've unearthed that my teenager and her friends often appear to compete on who will gather the most friends on Facebook. Sometimes even a straightforward background check is skipped to "increase the numbers ".By simple background check I recently mean some method to verify you or you're teen knows this person. Much of times teens are approving friends of another friend because their friend approved them, but sometimes a creeper may slip through.

• Personal information - If you're teen has friended an on the web predator, they now have access to you're teens profile information like a cellular phone number, potential address, family, etc. Depending on what you're teen shares, an on the web predator might manage to gain details like school, teachers, schedules, after school activities, addresses, telephone numbers, siblings, etc.

• Location - Many social networking sites and services are allowing users to post their location. Sites like Facebook and Foursquare are typically the most popular and allow you're teen to fairly share not just where they're, but who they're with. An on the web predator doesn't have to be too acquainted with an area since they are able to simply plug-in the place to Google maps and get actual driving directions to the location. A whole lot worse is when the predator has you're teens home address then they may potentially wait for the teen to leave their current location and walk home.

• Access to you're friends - It's bad enough we have to worry about what our teen is doing online and how we can protect them from online predators, but it is also extremely important on who you're teen is friending. On many social networking sites an individual can view someone's profile by just friending a pal of a friend.

• Interests - While knowing just what a teen interest may appear harmless on top, it could be a very powerful weapon to an on the web predator in gaining the trust of you're teen. Additionally it may potentially help give away the location. Like, if a teen likes their high school softball teams page and posts that they're at softball practice, it doesn't have a rocket scientist to determine the place of practice. The practice of an on the web predator gaining trust with a potential victim is known as "grooming ".This pertains to games if you're teen plays any type of networked games on the phone or online. Networked games sometimes have their particular integrated chat tools meant to allow visitors to collaborate socially while playing a game.

Tip on How to acknowledge a potential online predator

• Photos - Generally fake Facebook accounts won't have lots of photos. I suppose could be creepers are simply too lazy to post lots of pics to seem more authentic. Exactly how many teens are you aware with only 2 pictures of themselves?


Published by Matthew Piggot