Real Life Stories
Dangerous Attention
Cybertip.ca received a report about a posting on Craigslist, a popular classifieds website. The posting, found in the personals section of Craigslist, appeared to have been made by an 18-year-old woman who was looking for "encounters" with men. Upon further investigation, the Cybertip.ca reporting person discovered the female posting the personals advertisement was only 16 years old.
What does this mean?
Classified sites like Craigslist and Kijiji are websites that offer services similar to traditional newspaper classifieds, advertising goods and services for sale, personal ads, jobs, etc. They differ from traditional print classifieds by offering classified services for free. Online classifieds allow users to post text-based messages advertising goods or services for sale, personal ads, jobs, etc. On most websites users are also allowed to upload an image to their classified advertisement.
Adolescents may review advertisements for goods, services, jobs or personal ads. They may also post classified ads selling specific objects or personal ads exploring relationships.
The risks with classified websites include the fact that adolescents may be exposed to sexually explicit material, may provide personal contact information (e.g. emails, addresses, phone numbers, etc.) or may, in an attempt to explore relationships, post personals that may put them in harm's way.
What can I do?
- Caution adolescents about the amount of personal information they post online and remind them of the permanence of this.
- Explain how experimenting in a public place like the Internet can have irreversible consequences.
- Encourage adolescents to have open communication and be aware of adolescents' sensitivity to social judgment. They may be hesitant to share personal experiences.
- Discuss with adolescents online and offline high-risk behaviour and create ‘what if’ scenarios with them to help them recognize dangerous situations and practice responses.
- Discuss dignity and self-respect with adolescents and how it can be preserved or destroyed by messages/photos/videos sent online.
- Discuss with adolescents the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships.
- Remind adolescents that it is illegal for people to manufacture, possess or distribute naked or sexually explicit pictures of children under 18 years of age.
- Reinforce that it is also illegal for adults to offer them gifts or money in exchange for sexual activity.
- Check out our Popular Activities section for more information on technologies being used by adolescents and how to make them safer, and our Healthy Relationships section and our Manipulative Relationships section to learn more about subtle forms of manipulation and how you can talk to adolescents about these.