It is amazing how technology is affecting the lives of youth today, and how simple it is for someone to be slowly pursuing those on the Internet.
Perpetrators will go as far as adding friends of your friends, and will take weeks, or even months, to gain the trust of some young person, just to take advantage of their inability to see who it is behind the screen.
It is mind boggling to hear that most high school students describe a online perpetrator as a older, scruffy, out of shape man, who lives in his parents basement and offers free WiFi.
Curiosity peaks at how someone has the ability to tell what the other will look like through the screen; other then if they trust said person enough to send photos back and forth or video chat.
It was mentioned in the Sexual Violence, Youth, and Technology workshop that most predators online vary from the ages of 18 to 35, not exactly what the students described at the high school seminars.
It was also said that most of those hiding in the depths of their supposed parents basement, are actually every day people who teens would least expect, and as stated earlier, make themselves supposedly known by their friends, or even family.
With Facebook being so popular it makes it even easier for online perpetrators to smuggle their way into the lives of youth, through their friends and maybe even their family, without anyone batting an eye.
Often times you hear someone say that an unknown someone has added them on Facebook, and they immediately click “okay.” Why?
Facebook has personal information, and with constant status updates, can even lead someone to learn more than they should.
What needs to be taught to youth is that there are dangers to posting even simple things online, statuses such as “Florida here we come!” can hint at an empty house for some sneaky burglar to get in.
With the new law that is coming to Canada, Bill C13, it will save some of the youth from the terrifying unknown void and dangers, of sending personal photos of themselves to others.
This new Bill that is being implemented, hopefully sooner rather then later, is going to protect everyone from what could potentially be a mess.
With sexting on the rise, and an ever growing number of individuals sending provocative images of themselves through text, it is important to have something to back them up in case a certain someone sends that image to another someone and it goes on from there.
What is so concerning is the simple fact that the youth of today do not understand how dangerous it is for them to send images of themselves either via the web or text.
It can not only damage your current reputation, but could down the line affect your career.
Don’t worry about keeping it short, just make sure it’s sweet.
