"Introduction
As children get older, they’ll want to know more. With the emergence of the internet, this is easier than parents think. All it takes is a few keystrokes and they’ve come to the website of their choice. Even with that, children find ways to get the information they need.
Being online exposes children to a new way of exploring things. Or they will access one of their favorite children’s television websites and look at old episodes of their favorite shows. If it doesn’t cost them much of anything, they will take advantage of what the internet has available.
Even though a child may land on a child-friendly website, some of them do have chat rooms. Who’s to say that they would not try to access one of them ? If they get lonely, they can look for new friends online. These are people they have never met before. Down the road, they start to feel comfortable talking to them.
Then once they get to know them, they seek out people who have their same interests. Little do some of these children know that they may be setting themselves up for trouble if they’re not careful. The person on the other end seems to be interested in having a “friendship” as well.
This “friendship” gets so intense that the child starts pouring out their heart to them. They start to divulge their innermost thoughts and problems. They think that the person on the other end will be willing to help them.
What the person is really doing is trying to get a hook to take advantage of them. The child is then lured with promises of attention, giving and loving by way of the internet.
Then, once they think the child feels comfortable with them, they start to introduce them to content of a sexual nature. Being that most children are curious by nature, they seek to find out more.
So the person starts sending them sexually provocative images and talks to them in a sexually explicit manner. In essence they’re being brainwashed to renounce their normal life as a child and start to grow up faster than they need to.
When the perpetrator feels that they want to move the relationship to another level, they’ll trick the child into meeting them in person. Once that happens, the child is lured into staying with this person for an unspecified period of time. After that, the parents become hard pressed to get their child back.
The age of the sex offender isn’t always an older person. Sometimes, the perpetrator can " protect my kids from perverts online "be a few years older than the child. No matter how old they are, if they can succeed in luring the child away from their home, then the parents have a problem.
Some of the perpetrators may not necessarily be child molesters per se, but they may still pose a danger to the child their trying to lure into their graces.
Warning Signs
How do you know if your child is in danger of encountering a perpetrator ? Here are some tell-tale signs you should spot :
• If your child starts to detach from the rest of the family. They don’t eat at the dinner table or accompany the family on outings. They become detached from school and other activities they used to enjoy.
• The child doesn’t talk to their family as much as they used to. When a sex offender or perpetrator tries to lure them away, they’ll plant false images in the child’s mind. The child in turn, creates a separation between themselves and their families.
• Your child is suddenly getting gifts from someone you’ve never met or heard of. This is another way the offender tries to separate the child from their family. The offender will send things that the child likes in order to get their attention.
• The offender will make it seem like they are the only ones the like the child and are looking out for their best interests. Some offenders will go as far as sending them a plane ticket to meet them.
• If you happen to come in the room and your child abruptly changes to another website or screen, there’s a chance they may be looking at something that they’re not supposed to look at. If they’re looking at sexually charged content, they do not want you to see it. They don’t want to suffer the consequences.
• In order to divert attention from their online account, you child will use someone else’s account to access sexually charged content or connect with the sex offender. They’ll either go to the library or a friend’s place to do this.
• Phone calls for your child will increase and they won’t be from their friends, either. It will be from people that parents have never heard of or met. Or, they can be long distance phone numbers that parents don’t know about.
Some perpetrators talk with the children to get them sexually aroused. This way, they can get them in the mood to set up a date for a real sexual encounter.
• If parents find that their child spends a lot of time on the internet, this may be a problem. It could definitely surface as a problem if the child is online during the late evening hours when they should be sleeping.
• They’ll also stay online during the weekends. They’ll spend a lot of time in the chat rooms. If they are home alone after school, this is a perfect set up for the "
"perpetrator.
They will either have the child call them back or they’ll get the child’s phone number from the child themselves. Some perpetrators have even gone so far as to get a toll-free number so the parents would think that it might be a company calling. This way, they would be able to throw the parent off as to who is actually calling.
This is not good because there is no guidance or control during this time. While the parents are working, the child has their way and is in free reign of the computer.
If they’re not focused on what they’re supposed to be doing, they can easily get sidetracked with people trying to lure them for sexual encounters or they could get hooked on pornography at a young age.
In order to get their young victims to open up, sex offenders may send the child pornographic images. They try to instill in the child that those sexual relations between children and adults is natural. Parents should be cognizant of what is on the computer. A child may also copy the sexually explicit pictures on a disk to put away.
If parents have a suspicion that their child is headed for danger, there are some things they can do before it gets worse :
• Parents will eventually want to confront the child about their concerns. Let the child know that they care and that if the concerns are true, find way to turn the situation around.
• Parents should check what websites their child has had access to. If the parent finds any kind of sexually explicit information, this should be cause for alarm.
" internet dangers children "Parental Monitoring
Parents should not stop monitoring their child’s website access after the initial findings. They should continue to monitor access on an ongoing basis. This would include any type of communications such as instant messaging and chat rooms.
Chat rooms have been the main source of where a child gets mixed up with a sexual predator. Parents should also keep a close eye on e-mail correspondence that your child gets. There can be e-mail messages that will hold a clue to what’s going on with them.
Most parents have Caller ID with their phone system. Using Caller ID will let parents know who is calling them. If you suspect a sex offender calling there for the child, you can have the phone number blocked by your phone company. This can help to fight off the unwanted advances of a pervert.
If pornographic information is going to a child under 18, the perpetrator could be breaking the law if they know the child is under age. If this happens, parents should report it to your service provider. They can also report it to the perpetrator’s service provider.
In addition to that, parents should notify their local and county law enforcement authorities. Some of them have special units that work specifically with these kinds of cases. Even with this, parents should still continue to watch their child’s website activity.
When you do contact law enforcement, parents should make sure that the evidence is stored on the computer. They will want to see this to prove the parents’ claim. Parents should also keep the computer turned off until further notice.
They should not make copies of any of the evidence on the computer. Law enforcement will probably want to take the computer and examine it themselves.
In addition to doing the above to protect their child, parents should also invest in child internet protection software. It can help filter and block out any sites that parents don’t want your child to see.
There are certain types that can pick up everything that the child does on the internet, including surfing websites and participating in chat rooms. Parents can also record and make a copy of their child’s chat room conversations.
It’s unfortunate that children nowadays can’t get online without some pervert trying to entice them. There are so many of them on these chat rooms, it’s difficult to determine who is who. Parents will definitely want to play a more dominant role in protecting their child from these weirdoes.
There is too much going on with the internet for a parent not to want to take precautions "
"and check their child’s activities online.
Parents may feel guilty at first, but after they get involved, they start to feel better and more secure about what’s going on. Parents want their child to be safe. The last thing they want to hear about is that their child is involved in something illegal or immoral.
Parental control software has helped many parents save their children from potential dangers and catastrophes. There have been reports of parents finding out that their child was involved in drugs or stealing.
Or that their child claimed to have a boyfriend or girlfriend online. Parents finding this out early on get a chance to intervene and prevent further trouble for their child.
There have also been reports that children have engaged in sexual relationships with adults two and three times older than them. Using the parental control software has been a godsend for many parents. This is why so many parents are now getting on the bandwagon and taking care of business with their child.
The parents know that it’s their responsibility to keep their child safe. If it means snooping and spying on them, so be it. The child may be annoyed at first, but a while, they’ll be grateful." an internet predators "Monitoring and Protection Software
When you have something as serious as child internet safety, parents want nothing but the best internet protection software. However, it may not be an easy task to manage. There are many software programs that claim to be the best one for internet protection.
In order to determine the best one, parents may have to try out several different software programs to see which one suits them. They should go through each one carefully, then make a decision which one best suited their needs.
Some software programs offer a trial version from a few weeks to a month. This way, it helps parents to make a decision without having to buy right away. Even if parents are using a trial, it’s good to have some type of internet protection software program installed.
There are some computers and some internet service providers that have internet protection software programs preinstalled. It’s a matter of the parents activating it when they turn on the computer. These programs are automated to send updates when needed. It’s important that the parents download the updates when they’re announced.
Even when parents decide on a program, it’s imperative that they keep the program updated. Parents can check for updates on their own, but it’s usually not necessary as the updates automatically appear.
Regardless of what internet protection program parents use, it should be operating in the computer at all times.
Parents can use filtering software that protects their child from accessing websites that are not age appropriate. When choosing filtering software, parents should choose one that is easy to install and navigate.
A parent will want to weigh out the pros and cons of using filtering software. They would want to make sure that it will be useful enough for the entire family.
Here are the pros for selecting filtering software :
• The child will not be able to access unauthorized websites (i.e. adult-oriented, gambling, etc.)
• Keeps sexual predators and perverts away from the child.
• The child can get on the internet with out parents by their side. Even with that, parents should still keep an eye out for suspicious activity.
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formation du personnel communautaire (voir ci-dessus) et décision d’effectuer la distribution par les livreurs et conseillers du tri permanents (et non des agents temporaires embauchés pour l’occasion) ;
