Written by: Tom Sawyer

According to the site, What Is Social Networking?, social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighborhood subdivision…if you will.

The Internet has become a popular place to participate in social networking with an endless amount of sites to choose from. The Internet affords many people options that they wouldn’t have otherwise when it comes to branching out socially. You can (sort of) meet anyone around the world with some of the same interests as you and if you feel like it a totally arbitrary group of “friends.”

Of course we all know about the big boys MySpace and Facebook, at least you probably do if you are reading this article. Did you know there are sites that cater to the following crowds: European jet set and social elite, Zimbabwean community, clubbing (primarily UK), book lovers, Muslim social networking, online volunteering and many more? It seems like there is a category to fit whatever someone could want, and here is where the problems could begin.

Unfortunately, there are people out there who are evil and use anything at their disposal to carry out all sorts of disgusting activities. You should know what I’m getting at when I associate evil with social networking: online predators. The Microsoft article, Online Predators: Help Minimize the Risk, says, “Predators establish contact with kids through conversations in chat rooms, instant messaging, e-mail, or discussion boards. Many teens use peer support online forums to deal with their problems. Predators often go to these online areas to look for vulnerable victims. Online predators try to gradually seduce their targets through attention, affection, kindness, and even gifts, and often devote considerable time, money, and energy to this effort. They’re aware of the latest music and hobbies likely to interest kids. They listen to and sympathize with kids’ problems. They also try to ease young people’s inhibitions by gradually introducing sexual content into their conversations or by showing them sexually explicit material. Some predators work faster than others, engaging in sexually explicit conversations immediately. This more direct approach may include harassment or stalking. Predators may also evaluate the kids they meet online for future face-to-face contact.”

Parents and concerned citizens, what do you have to say about this problem?  I want to hear your opinions, we need to hear your opinions on this sad problem we have in our society.  What are you doing to protect your children?  Yeah, yeah, they think they should have a certain level of privacy, but what are we willing to risk by giving children the privacy necessary to allow someone to attempt to start an online relationship with them?  Let’s hear it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 1:09 am and is filed under Random Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.