Child Predators and the Internet, Are Your Children Safe?

The Internet can be a wonderful place with it's wealth of information but, it contains it's hidden dangers also. Child predators scour the Internet on a regular basis looking for their next victim. Many of us as parents allow our children to use the Internet, whether it be for doing school work, chatting with friends or playing games. We like to think that our children are safe on the Internet and it won't happen to them.

The truth about predators:

The truth is that a child predator can be lurking anywhere on the Internet that a child may be. Most sites have a chat system on their site where a person can chat with other members. There are many game sites and most of them offer on line chat, making it very easy for a predator to chat with a child. The sad and scary thing is that the sites our children enjoy are exactly where these predators lurk The Internet provides a great deal of anonymity, which in turn allows people to disguise themselves as anyone they want to be. With this disguise Internet predators can surf message boards and any other site they choose looking for victims. These victims are usually teenage boys or girls. The predator will then pretend to be the same age or close to it and become friends with the child. Once a predator has created a relationship with the child, they arrange to meet them. The child thinks they are meeting a new friend their age. At this point the child is lured to a spot where they are then kidnapped, raped, molested and sometimes worse. There are cases when the child has been murdered.

What the police are doing:

Police are taking many steps in their attempts to stop Internet predators. There are many police departments that have developed special units that they call Child Exploitation or Cyber Crime Units. These units spend their time searching for and arresting on line predators. There has been a great deal of success in catching predators.