Today’s teenagers live in a fast paced, high tech world vastly different from generations past. Technology is growing so fast and so popular that every aspect of life is driven by a technological force, luring both children and sexual predators to cyber space.
Lt. Jessica Farnsworth, of the Utah attorney generals office, Field Commander for the Internet Crimes Against Children’s Task Force, said,“Back when I was a kid my parents and I had to worry about a bad guy jumping out from behind a bush. Now we have to worry about protecting our kids from the latest form of technology.”
Sex offenders, or sexual predators, are moving to the internet to get their victims. This includes child molesters and rapists.
Police officers are trying to stop this by posing as a child and talking to predators online in chat rooms. In most situations they will pose as a child and talk to a predator and at some point arrange to meet, but instead of a child being there when the predator comes to the meeting place, a squad of eager police officers are there waiting to take them into custody.
Teens may not know that one of the biggest problems police officers are facing today is teens taking and sending nude pictures of themselves to their boyfriends and friends on their cell phones. They don’t realize this is a second degree felony of manufacturing and distributing pornography. Also, a revealing picture sent on a cell phone can easily be downloaded to the internet and shared with thousands of people not intended to see it.
Lt. Farnsworth said, “Unfortunately, anything sent into cyberspace can never be taken back.”
When someone applies for college or a job, an employer or administrator has the right to search your name. This includes searching Google, Facebook, Myspace and any other website that shows as a result to your name. Depending on the result of the name search, an application may be declined.
Approximately 60 percent of boys and 80 percent of girls who are sexually victimized are abused by someone they know. A common mistake made by people today is trying to see the good in everybody. This isn’t wrong, but as nice as a person may be, if they have touched a child once, they will do it again.
There are two types of sex offenders. They are situational and preferential. A situational offender is when their style or preference changes. A situation means a person gets drunk and touches or attacks someone is a form of this offender. This type has a less chance of doing it again. A preferential offender is a person that is sexually attracted to a child. This type is highly likely to re-offense according to the ICACTF website.
According to the Nation Alert Registry, the latest National Survey confirms there are over 374,270 registered sex offenders in the United States.
Websites for sex offenders are more and more busy these days with people searching to find if there is a registered offender in their neighborhood or in their work place. A popular website is familywatchdog.com. When a person goes to this website, there is a search engine to type in their street, city, state and zip code. Then, press search, and within ten seconds a map of the area showing registered offenders shows up. The map of the city entered was covered in color coded dots.
By clicking on a dot, a person can view the offender, their address, full appearance description and what they were convicted for. The FBI estimates there is a sex offender living in every square mile in the United States.
There are many places to contact to get help and to report abuse. Many websites offer “Tips to keep your child safe” and also help for a victim after an attack.
To talk to someone, call 1-866-DHS-2ICE The Department of Homeland Security.