Social Media is the perfect hunting ground for potential kidnappers<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kids are spending more time indoors and the way they socialize is changing. As parents, we think we are keeping our kids safe by keeping them in the house under our watchful gaze. But how safe are they really? Time spent with friends outside of the home is being replaced by socializing on the Internet \u2013 in chat rooms, playing online games and on social media. Most of our kids\u2019 online activity is harmless and fun, but a growing percentage of children are falling victim to online predators and even kidnappers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More and more children and teens are active on social media, yet many are unaware of the potential dangers of engaging with others online. The inherent dangers of social media are magnified by the fact that many children engage in risky online behavior. Studies have shown that most kids are more than happy to \u2018friend\u2019 or \u2018follow\u2019 people on social media sites whom they have never met in real life. Furthermore, an alarming number of teens are happy to give out personal information to people they don\u2019t know or to create personal profiles that include their picture, address, phone number, name of their school and their interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having put themselves out there for all to see, there seems to be some kudos attached to attracting friends and followers. It\u2019s a 21st century popularity contest for many. The struggle to get more \u2018likes\u2019 and have more \u2018friends\u2019 is real for today\u2019s teens. This makes social media the ideal hunting ground for online predators and would-be kidnappers who are happy to invest many hours seeking out the children who might easily be targeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recent studies have also discovered that teenagers\u2019 natural curiosity and desire for independence means that they are quite willing to engage with these new, so-called friends \u2013 chatting to them, revealing more information about themselves and even agreeing to meet with them in person. The need for predators to pretend to be someone of a similar age also seems to be diminishing, as teenagers are not afraid of chatting to someone older and don\u2019t see this as a particular threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kids enjoy posting profiles, pictures and other information about themselves on social media and it doesn\u2019t take a huge investment of time or effort for online predators to find and target their victims. Having been allowed into a child\u2019s life \u2013 through \u2018friending\u2019, \u2018following\u2019, chatrooms or online gaming \u2013 predators have demonstrated that they have considerable patience when it comes to gaining a child\u2019s trust. They don\u2019t even have to pretend to be a kid anymore; they simply need to portray themselves as someone cool to talk to, someone who uniquely understands the child and makes themselves available to them no matter what the time of day or night. Teenagers who are alienated from their parents are the easiest target and predators are happy to provide a listening ear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another way that online predators can establish a rapport with their victims is by studying personal profiles and pictures on social media to discover the child\u2019s interests. They can then pretend to like the same things, which generates excitement and curiosity in the victim \u2013 there appears to be an instant connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sadly these online connections with strangers often lead to grooming for the purposes of sexual exploitation and, more rarely, to kidnapping. It is estimated that 50,000 sexual predators are online at any given time and that 50% of sex crimes committed against a minor involve a perpetrator obtaining information and\/or pictures from social media sites. Shocking statistics reveal how easily children who have been groomed for some time can be persuaded to meet with a stranger in the real world. According to the Enough is Enough organisation, 16% of teenagers considered meeting someone they had only talked to online, whilst 8% had actually done so. Of those who did meet strangers face-to-face, 75% did so on more than one occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With many children seemingly willing to meet strangers they only know through social media, the incidence of forced abduction (where the victim is grabbed and held by force) is rare. However, there can be no doubt that engaging with strangers online heightens the risk of kidnapping, as predators can easily identify victims, discover their location, groom them and lure them to a face-to-face meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n