Is Social Media the Safe Haven & Gateway for Child Predators?

Posted on the 24 October 2017 by Ruby Mariah @rubymariah22

Technology has advanced over a couple of decades and has had played a positive role for mankind. Young kids and teens are continuously lurking towards the social media accounts and also spend most of the time on the online media websites and apps such Facebook, Tinder, Line, Vine, SnapChat, Yahoo, Instagram and plenty of others alike.

According to a survey, 81% teens at least use online media apps and 65% has their accounts as well and they log in to their accounts once in the day. Are young kids and teens doing some privacy settings on displayed information? Do teens know that the ultimate dangers of using social media apps for the book? It is very shocking and unfortunate to know that only a few of them aware of all the issues they may encounter with. 

The Popular Social Media Channels for Teens

Young teens and kids are very fond of trendy social messaging apps such as Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter, Vine, and WhatsApp. According to the studies and research work 74% of teens are using the might Facebook app, 59% spend their time on Instagram, 57% hover over on SnapChat, 32% are used to of twitter and last but not the least 30% love to use Vine. 

Teens are lacking with the Privacy concerns

Young kids and teens don’t bother to apply privacy settings on their social media accounts and they don’t use the digital world buy the book. Ultimately they get encountered with the plenty of dangers that can be very dangerous for young children. It is a very dangerous thing to know that only 9% of teens use social media with the complete literacy of privacy settings and they believe in to apply it to the social media accounts and want to display their profile in custom. They also keep concerns while sharing the information with third parties that are unknown people.

Social media has become the safe haven and gateway for child predators and another type of evils which we have mentioned in the following.

Online Child Predators & Dangerous concerns

There are a number of types of online predators that are always in search of chasing young child and teens. They start searching for the profiles with lack of privacy and target young teens and kids. Initially, they start as strangers and make teens and kid their friends.

They are known as stalkers. They just want to fulfill their lust and then move towards the next target. On another hand, there is another type of online child predators that are cyber bullies.

They can attack a young kid and teen any time on social media platform. Their motive is to tease, humiliate and make fun of the target child by using sexual language or sending sexually explicit material and with many other unethical methods. There is another kind of child predator that chase young kids and teens on the social media and then try to get their home and address in order to abuse them they are known as pedophilia or child abusers.

Instead of all these predators, there are plenty of other concerns that can exploit your child and push them to the darker side of the social media when it comes to addiction.

The online predators are mostly male that are over 26 years of age. They contact kids and teens through offline messages, in chat rooms, and there are many of them that tell a lie to the victim that they are age fellows. Digital Media is no more remain social for young children and for teens and online barbarians continuously capturing the social media for evils.

The social media addiction makes young kids and teens narcissist in nature, they can encounter with the sexually explicit material such as carnal content in the shape of videos and photos. Initially, they start texting on the instant messaging apps and then tend towards sexting.

They may also get health issues such as stress, depression, anxiety and other psyche issues due to excessive use of social media. They start dating online by using the dating apps by using the cell phone devices. Cell phone devices enable the young child to download and install the social messaging apps on the smartphones. Therefore, it is arguably true that social media has become safe haven and gateway for child predators.

Teens Hide social Media activities from Parents

Most of the parents in the contemporary word are non-tech savvy because all the trendy instant messaging apps have invented in the time current generation. Therefore, they know far better about the technology in the shape of cell phones, social media apps, and websites. Furthermore, parents won’t be able to see the bigger picture of kids and teens; they can only get their eyes on the tip of the iceberg. According to or states only 50% of the parents think that their kids and teens tell them the truth about the activities they perform online. But in reality, 70% of teens don’t tell the truth what they really do online.

How teens hide their activities from parent?

Teens admit that only 25% of the activities they perform online their parent only knows few. They cover their tracks with plenty of different activities such as they clear all the browsing history of their cell phone devices, they have fake social media accounts, they don’t give a hint of their online activities to their parents, a smartphone is the best gadgets for their activities and they override parental privacy settings. They also use code words in their posts to cheat their parents in order to not get caught.

Content Usually teens and kids share on online media

Most of the teens and child who use social media in the shape of instant messaging apps are used to of displaying their real names and photos and that is 92%. On another hand, teens also share their each and every single activity that is 72% and only 20% of teens share their cell phone number on social media platforms and that is too dangerous things to do. They share their location and 30% of teens talk to the people online whom they don’t know in their real lives.   

How Social Media is safe haven & Gateway for cyber predators?

States also show that 3 out of 10 young teens become the victim of stalkers on mighty Facebook messenger only. They receive messages on the social messaging apps which they are using and the senders are 79% that teens don’t know in their real life. It is also horrible to hear that 16% of teens do consider meeting the people in real life whom they talked online and 16% are the strangers that threats teens while talking online with young children.

How online predators get their hands on teens?

  • They chase their potential targets by visiting social networking apps, blogs, chat rooms and on dating sites.
  • They seduce young kids and teens with their positive behavior by using the Flory language.
  • They show themselves gentle and display the same activities which teens usually do such as music and hobbies and then get the attention.
  • Use sexual language and make young teens and child to lose their sexual inhibitions.

What should parents do?

Parents have to draw boundaries when kids and teens are using their cell phone devices and they should make sure for teens that don’t violate the ground rules. They should custom the location sharing option for kids and teens devices and guide them what are the consequences could be. Parents should have complete knowledge about the social media dangers and the people who can harm your innocent teens online. 

 If teens are using windows computer or MAC machines place it the place where you can view all the activities they do online. The most important thing is to use the cell phone and PC monitoring software in order to keep an eye on their activities remotely 24/7. Parents just need to install the cell phone and windows & MAC tracking app on your target device.

When you installed it successfully, then put your worries to rest and get your hands on all the hidden activities which they do online. It enables a user to view all the text messages sent and received by using text messages spy of the mobile phone surveillance app. Anyhow, if teens spend too much time on the social messaging apps, then use IM’s social media of the windows and MAC spy software.

You will be able to see IM’s logs, IM’s chats and conversations, VOIP calls and shared media files. Parents can even get access to the phone with the help of keylogger, it will help out parents. It empowers parents to get to know all the keystrokes applied on the target phone or computer machines such as password keystrokes, messenger keystrokes, SMS keystrokes and email keystrokes.

Conclusion:

No doubt, social media has become vulnerable for teens since; the online predators have made their presence in social networking apps. Prevent all the dangers and protect your beloved young ones with the help cell phone and PCs monitoring app.