Predators

=__Staying SAFE Online!__= =We are not trying to scare you, we are trying to show you what could happen.=

__Even though you are talking to someone online and you trust them, they may not be who they say they are.__

Despite fears that teenagers on the Internet are leaving themselves open to predators, a new study that said pages on **MySpace.com** suggests most teens are behaving responsibly in the type of information they post about their lives. Authors of the unpublished study say there remain troubling findings, including 5 percent of youths on public MySpace pages posting pictures of themselves in bathing suits or underwear. [|The Eyes Are Watching] [|Be Careful What You Wish For]

MySpace prohibits users under 14 and automatically keeps profiles of users under 16 "private," meaning only friends have access. But the authors combed pages randomly and found clues — like friends' comments about recent birthdays and inconsistencies between listed age and birth date — that suggested some youngsters were lying about their age to break the rules.

A 17-year-old girl said she made her profiles for MySpace and Facebook, another social networking site, private soon after opening them, after she received unwanted contact from strangers. "Really weird people, tried to request to be my friend and I don't want to deal with that."

[|Be Safe.] [|Amy's Choice] <- Please scroll down until you reach Amy's Choice, and then click on 'play'.

Some researchers examined 1,475 teenage MySpace pages, among millions left public:


 * More than half of teenagers posted their pictures online and an unspecified number of others provided detailed physical descriptions of themselves. In addition to the 5 percent that posted pictures of themselves in bathing suits and/or underwear, another 15 percent had suggestive pictures of their friends in their online profiles.


 * Only 4 percent of pages listed instant messaging contact information. One percent listed personal e-mail addresses and just a handful of teens listed their phone numbers.

[|Think About It !?!?] Let me tell you a little bit about what an **Online Predator** is.
 * Though 90 percent of teenagers did not list full names, they did leave other identifying information, including their first names (40 percent), hometown (81 percent) and high school (28 percent).

An **online predator** is an Internet user who exploits vulnerable people for sexual or financial purposes. Children under the age of 18 are most often the victims of online predators. Experts recommend not providing personally identifiable information such as a name, password, phone number, address or credit card numbers. While chat and instant messaging is a widely known playground for online predators, you can also see them popping up in other well known places. For example, MySpace, has received a great deal of attention regarding online predators looking up profiles of children in hopes they can use any information the child provides against them and start the predatory process. Many parents are not aware of the danger their children may be in with regards to providing personal information on their blogs, profiles, etc. Some parents on the other hand do understand that they need to discuss the potential dangers with their children and explain to them that they should never provide any personal information online. Other things that parents have been doing to prevent their child from being exposed to an online predator would be to use monitoring software to keep an eye on their kids’ computer activity.

<- All the predators on Dateline NBC that caught for pretending to be 14-16 year olds. They all went to jail and will never come out. Well, some of them.

Connecticut police say they are investigating whether as many as seven teenage girls have been sexually assaulted by men they met on the popular networking site MySpace.com [|Really Important To See]

I Hope you learned something from this page, and hopefully you keep it in your mind when you go on MySpace and FaceBook.

Thank You, Shelby and Emily