by Tim O'Dell

Created on: March 06, 2008

The Internet has opened a viper's nest. Besides giving ordinary people unprecedented access to a wealth of information, it has also created an opportunity for predatory adults to prey on young people from all over the world. Where once they could only corrupt children in their locality, they can now contact any child on the planet.

Now introduce the social networking phenomenon. MySpace, Bebo and Facebook are great vehicles for keeping in touch, as well as making new friends. But how do we know these new friends are genuine?

What's to stop a middle-aged man finding a picture of a youth on the Internet and opening an account on any of these websites with false details? The only proof needed of their identity is their email address and, if they have a hotmail account, this is no guarantee of age either.

I believe, in the early days of MySpace, there were no safeguards and teens were easily contactable by pedophiles, with the intention of grooming them for sexual contact. Unfortunately, these people can be terribly persuasive and charming. When young people are stalked, playing on the hang-ups and anxiety that come with puberty, they can easily fall prey to these deviants.

Since the site fell under the spotlight, MySpace have introduced some security measures. No teens can now be contacted by anybody over eighteen and their profiles are private. All well and good, but what happens when a pedophile opens up an account as a fourteen year old boy and befriends girls in his own age group?

I have recently read a book on the first man to be charged with grooming a teen on the Internet and attempting to sexually assault her. The victim, who wrote the book, was thirteen and the man was forty-one. However, he had posed as a twenty-three year old in order to seduce her over a six-month period. Because of her pubescent fears and insecurities, this man was able to insinuate his way into her life.

The problem, in this case, was that her parents were unaware of the developing relationship as the Internet was still a new phenomenon, and its dangers were not yet public knowledge. Regrettably, there are still parents out there who are largely ignorant of their teens activities on the Internet. These teens are then in danger of falling into the same trap.

I have a thirteen-year-old niece. When she opened up a Facebook account, some months ago, her address was available on her profile for anybody to see. This scared me. I immediately contacted her mother to tell her of the danger. Facebook is different from MySpace as, by default, the account holder must add a person as a friend before their profile is viewable. If she had done the same on MySpace I dread to think of the possible consequences.

So is MySpace a safe Internet venue for teens? I would say no; but I don't think they should be discouraged from using it. I think they need to be made aware of the risks, and told to be careful if any strangers make friend requests. Most importantly, I think parents have to be aware of their child's activities online; check their accounts, talk to their children about online friendships and ensure they don't meet anybody offline without a chaperon. It really is the only way to keep them safe.

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