Real Life Stories
Luring Through Social Networking Sites
A 16-year-old girl was approached through a popular social networking site by a 35-year-old man. The man sent repeated requests to the youth to arrange to meet in order to have sex with her.
What does this mean?
Sexual offenders target social networking sites where children and adolescents are encouraged to create online diaries and connect with new people. Adolescents may accept friend requests from individuals they have not met in person. Individuals looking to victimize adolescents may quickly turn conversations sexual, asking personal questions about puberty and development.
An adolescent may engage in private conversations and share private information on social networking sites, unaware of the lasting consequences. Once material is sent online, control over what happens with the material is lost, and subsequent exposure of the adolescent can be devastating.
What can I do?
Try to stay involved and supervise adolescent's online activities while still balancing their need for independence. Adolescents can appear very mature and ready to take on the world. However, teen brains are still developing and they do not have the capacity to properly deal with all situations. Monitor increased independence. Even though adolescents may appear as though they can 'handle' certain situations, they actually require and unconsciously seek adult guidance and supervision.
Check adolescent's social networking profile. Know her/his passwords, screen names, and the friends s/he is communicating with online. Learn how to adjust and/or increase privacy settings.
Explain to adolescents that they should never meet in person with someone they first met online without a parent or guardian.
Check out our Popular Activities section for more information on technologies being used by adolescents and how to make them safer, and our Manipulative Relationships section to learn more about subtle forms of manipulation and how you can talk to adolescents about these.