Compared to 2000, children are now around 30% less likely to be sexually solicited online, but more likely to encounter pornography and to be harassed. The University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center surveyed 1500 children last year and compared findings with a similar group five years earlier. The full report is available for download here (PDF file). The study suggests that the reduction in solicitations may indicate better awareness among young people of the potential dangers:
There are reasons to believe at least some of this reduction is due to youth being more cautious about interacting with people they do not know offline. A smaller proportion of youth overall were communicating online with people they did not know in person (page 7)
Key Statistics:
Solicitation
2000: 19%
2005: 13%
Exposure to pornography
2000: 25%
2005: 34%
Harassment
2000: 6%
2005: 9%
Source: Crimes Against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire; margin of error ± 2–3 percentage points
While agreeing that the figures on sexual solicitation represented an improvement, Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, told USA Today said the numbers are “still way too high.” The report shows that the number of aggressive solicitations remains the same over the period. Also, since more children were online in 2005 versus 2000, the actual number of solicitations may well have remained the same.
A number of commentators have pointed to the figures as exonerating social networks such as MySpace, which have become the subject of a moral panic recently. Internet researcher Larry Rosen, a professor of psychology at California State University, says the new research reinforces what he has seen in his own research: “There simply is not the volume of predators on MySpace that people imagine.”
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I think the important part of that story is the last part — that the number of kids solicited may not have changed given how many more kids are online these days. This study went through 2005, think how many kids join MySpace and Friendster everyday! And, the fact that aggresive solicitations have not declined also shows how important it is to keep up this fight against internet predators (just think of those Dateline shows, even one kid is too much imo!) People need to talk to their kids to educate them (and themselves!) and share resources they can use. Either another adult, teachers, reporting sites like cybertipline.org (which I have used before myself!) Online predators are an “it takes a village” problem — I’m glad that it is staying in the news.
I’m glad it stays in the news, too, K. The more we understand about this behaviour and the more rigorous academic research that is done lessens two things:
(a) the risk to children (most important, obviously); but also,
(b) the risk of the popular media shooting off at the wrong targets. I’ve written before about why I think the DoPA is misguided. Parents do not need to be scared about their children being in online communities, but they do need to share that experience with them and understand it so much more than seems to be the case.