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Vol X1V Number 33
| It's 10 o'clock - do you know where your children are online? Rebecca Carr “Jennifer” is 17 years old - or 15, depending upon which part of her blog you look at. The Kamiak freshman, according to her profile on a popular blogging web site, only gets along with her parents sometimes, doesn't see herself as attractive, and frequently does not believe in herself. She's been called a tease more than once, and lists her main weakness as trusting other people too easily. In short, she's a predator's dream: Open, trusting, and with a range of weaknesses to exploit. If Jennifer's parents were at last week's Internet Safety Forum sponsored by Olympic View Middle School's Parent Teacher Organization, they likely had chills running down their spines - that is, if they are even aware of what their kids are up to online. “Every single piece of information is valuable,” Microsoft Child Safety Specialist Nancy Criddle told the crowd at OV. “Every emotion, every photo, every fact can be used to exploit your child or your family.” More than 77 million teens and tweens keep blogs - short for web log, an online diary of whatever they want to share about themselves. And along with Jennifer's friends, any number of dangerous pedophiles, burglars and others with less than honorable intentions are carefully poring over her blog, searching for an opening. Jennifer (not her real name) gives them plenty of help though. Right alongside all of those vulnerabilities she's sharing, she lists her cell phone number, email address, her full name, city and state of residence, as well as the state in which she was born. What if a predator makes contact, uses her goals, interests and vulnerabilities to establish a relationship, and successfully meets her face to face? “Then they have a 93 percent success rate of abusing your child,” Criddle said. “I want that number to stick in your head.” It's hard to shake that real-world stereotype of a predator - wearing a trenchcoat and hiding in the bushes, or trolling the streets in a beat up windowless van, offering candy or asking help in finding a lost puppy. But who could possibly harm a teenager safely in his or her own home? Anybody can be anybody they want to online, whether it be a dating site, a social forum, or a potential buyer or seller of merchandise, Criddle pointed out. “Kids, people have a sense of safety and anonymity online that simply isn't there,” Criddle said. Predators look for the Jennifers of the world for a few reasons: like many adolescents, they lack confidence in themselves so they're unlikely to tell on their abuser. They're also easy to convince that the abuse is their fault, leaving them vulnerable to continued exploitation. They make themselves easy targets by offering enough clues about their emotions, life goals and activities to create plenty of openings with which to establish a relationship. And unlike at the local park or in the shrub under your bedroom window, online predators can appear as safe and normal - and to young girls, as cute and popular boys. Their posted photos could be 20 years out of date, or of someone else entirely. “They can be anything they want,” Criddle said. “That cute college sophomore might actually be 50 years old - and he might not even be a guy.” Criddle frequently searches the Internet much like a predator, but with the goal of educating vulnerable people on protecting themselves. Using no automated tools, she estimates she can find a potential victim of any age, learn some of their most personal details and locate their state and city of residence along with a specific address, in about 24 seconds. Criddle wasn't exaggerating, not in the slightest. In order to find Jennifer, we simply went to a popular blogging site and entered “Kamiak” in the search field. Instantly we found dozens of local Jennifers providing a font of valuable information from vacation plans, to personal feelings and emotions, to graphic photos of drinking parties. Jennifer's blog also includes a perhaps innocent - but easily misinterpreted - photo of her and another adolescent in bikinis, embracing on the beach. “Child pornography is a $3 billion a year business in the United States alone,” Criddle said. “There are two ways to create it - filming children in explicit acts or poses, or simply combining photos, putting new faces on old images, for a new and different product.” Adults needn't rest so easily though. The web has become a hotbed of information for home burglars who search for families on vacation, giving them a virtual shopping list of empty homes. Car thieves search for car buff blogs, complete with photos and details about the various accessories. “They make and sell catalogues of buyers and sellers,” Criddle said. “It's a legal opening to illegal activity.” Many pictures tell the story even when the blogger leaves out traceable printed information, Criddle said. Photos show license plate numbers, house numbers, background businesses and street signs, and a range of other identifying factors. T-shirts show local sports teams, high schools and other area-specific information. But watch out, predators - the next “Jennifer” you try to lure just might be Criddle herself, or a detective posing as a potential victim. Jennifer's is an actual blog of a Kamiak student, and everything we named, we found and took directly from her listed information. We changed her name (she gives her first and last name) and omitted the details of her contact information for obvious reasons. The search from opening up the browser window, to clicking on Jennifer's blog, took less than 30 seconds. Ed |
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