ONLINE SEXUAL PREDATORS—

Currently, there are over 600,000 Registered Sex Offenders in the United States; an estimated 150,000 have been lost in the system (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2006).

Four percent of all youth Internet users received aggressive sexual solicitations, which threatened to spill over into "real life". These solicitors asked to meet the youth in person, called them on the telephone, or sent offline mail, money, or gifts. Also 4 percent of youth Internet users had distressing sexual solicitations that left them feeling upset of extremely afraid (Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later, 2006).

Teens are willing to meet with strangers: 16 percent of teens considered meeting someone they've only talked to online and 8 percent have actually met someone they only knew online (Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later. 2006).

The predominant sex crime scenario doesn't involve violence or stranger molesters posing online as children; only 5 percent of offenders concealed the fact they were adults from their victims. Almost 80 percent of offenders were explicit about their intentions with youth. In 73 percent of crimes, youth go to meet the offender on multiple occasions for multiple sexual encounters (NJOV Study, 2007).

YOUTH AND GENERAL INTERNET USE—

• 31 percent of 7th to 12th-graders pretended to be older to get onto a website. (Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-Olds. Victoria Rideout, Donald F. Roberts. Ulla G. Foehr. March 2005. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 17 November 2006, http://www.kff.org/entmedia/up...f-8-18-Year-olds-Report.pdf).

• 38 percent of high school students sometimes hide their online activities from their parents (Market Wire. November 6, 2006. i-SAFE Inc. December 12, 2006.

• 65 percent of high school students admit to unsafe, inappropriate, or illegal activities online (Market Wire. November 6, 2006. i-SAFE Inc. December 12, 2006.

• A large majority of teens (71 percent) have established online profiles (including those on social networking sites such as MySpace, Friendster and Xanga), up from 61 percent in 2006. (National teen Internet survey was funded by Cox Communications in partnership with NCMEC and John Walsh and was conducted in March 2007 among 1,070 teens age 13 to 17. The research was conducted online by TRU. http://www.cox.com/TakeCharge/...ocs/survey_results_2007.ppt).

• Among the 96 percent of young people who have ever gone online, 65 percent say they go online most often from home, 14 percent from school, 7 percent from a friend's house, and 2 percent from a library or other location (Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-Olds. Victoria Rideout, Donald F. Roberts. Ulla G. Foehr. March 2005. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 17 November 2006, http://www.kff.org/entmedia/up...f-8-18-Year-olds-Report.pdf).

• Home computers are still overwhelmingly located in open family areas of the home; 74 percent of teens now say the computer they use is in a public place in the home, compared with 73 percent in 2004 and 70 percent in 2000. (Lenhart, Amanda and Madden, Mary. Teens, Privacy, and Online Social Networks. Pew Internet and American Life Project, April 18, 2007 http://www.pewinternet.org/pdf...rivacy_SNS_Report_Final.pdf).

• Looking at a general picture of teen internet adoption, American teens are more wired now than ever before. According to our latest survey, 93 percent of all Americans between 12 and 17 years old use the internet. In 2004, 87 percent were internet users, and in 2000, 73 percent of teens went online. (Lenhart, Amanda and Madden, Mary. Teens, Privacy, and Online Social Networks. Pew Internet and American Life Project, April 18, 2007 http://www.pewinternet.org/pdf...rivacy_SNS_Report_Final.pdf).

• Nearly one-third (31percent) of 8- to 18-year-olds have a computer in their bedroom, and one in five (20 percent) have an Internet connection there (Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-Olds. Victoria Rideout, Donald F. Roberts. Ulla G. Foehr. March 2005. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 17 November 2006, http://www.kff.org/entmedia/up...f-8-18-Year-olds-Report.pdf).

• The most common recreational activities young people engage in on the computer are playing games and communicating through instant messaging (Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-Olds. (Victoria Rideout, Donald F. Roberts, Ulla G. Foehr. March 2005. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 17 November 2006.

• The risks to children, particularly teenagers, in cyberspace include exposure to unwanted exposure to sexual material (1 in 3 youth) and harassment -- threatening or other offensive behavior directed at them (1 in 11 youth). (Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later. 2006. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Crimes Against Children Research Center, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. December 4, 2006. http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/CV138.pdf).

• Three in four (74 percent) young people have a home Internet connection (31 percent have high-speed access). Nearly one-third (31 percent) have a computer in their bedroom, and one in five (20 percent) have an Internet connection there. In a typical day, about half of young people (48 percent) go online from home, 20 percent from school, and 16 percent from someplace else (Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-Olds. Victoria Rideout, Donald F. Roberts. Ulla G. Foehr. March 2005. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 17 November 2006, http://www.kff.org/entmedia/up...f-8-18-Year-olds-Report.pdf).

Parents Tips Re: Computer Use—

1. Become familiar with the quality family-friendly and kid-friendly sites on the Web. Load your computer with bookmarks to those sites, such as:

• http://www.alfy.com
• http://www.timeforkids.com
• http://www.yahooligans.com

2. Keep your children out of unmonitored chat rooms. The best Internet filtering software blocks access to all chat to keep children safe from the threat of dangerous persons, masquerading as kids.

3. Place the computer in a well-trafficked area in the home where the whole family can use it, rather than out of sight in a bedroom. The computer should be set up where it is easy for parents to see the screen and monitor behavior.

4. Talk with your children to agree what kind of sites they are allowed to visit. Then check to make sure that they stay within these agreed limits.

5. Chat sites are a great way to meet people online and can be lots of fun. But they are open to misuse, so make sure your children are as cautious of strangers online as they would be in the outside world. Tell your children if they receive any obscene, abusive or threatening messages, they shouldn't respond, but to let you know, and you should consider telling your Internet service provider.

6. Find out what computer safeguards are utilized by your child's school, the public library, and at the homes of your child's friends. These are all places, outside your normal supervision, where your child could encounter an online predator.

7. Inform your child that whatever they are told online may or may not be true.

8. Know your child's e-mail password and tell them to inform you immediately about troubling, unsolicited e-mail. Make sure they understand it is not necessarily their fault if such e-mail arrives.

9. Monitor your child's use of chat rooms and keep them out of those that are unmonitored. As children can be under threat from dangerous persons masquerading as kids in chat rooms.

10. Take advantage of the filtering software readily available in the marketplace. It can help block access to inappropriate sites related to sex, drugs/alcohol, hate/violence, gambling etc and even chat.

11. Let your child know that you are there to talk anytime, about anything they come across that may cause discomfort.

12. Instruct your child to never do any of the following without your permission:

• Never to arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they meet online. If you do give permission, be sure that the meeting is in a public place and that you or another responsible adult accompany your child.
• Never to download pictures from an unknown source, as there is a good chance there could be sexually explicit images.
• Never to give out personal information such as their name, age, home address, school name or location, telephone numbers or financial information.
• Never to upload pictures of themselves on to the Internet or online service to people they do not know personally.

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