Online Child Predators and Their Profiles
Online Predators are defined as adult (sometimes teen) online users who seek to exploit young and/or vulnerable children or teenagers for sexual or abusive purposes. Online Predators use the internet and social media sites to pray on children and teenagers and do so in a way that makesd the victim trust the predator.
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Online predators often target children using social media sites, chat rooms, instant messaging, gaming chat systems, anonymous sites, and other types of sites used by teenagers and children daily. They typically are trying to gain trust of the victim and will often flirt to make the victim seem like they like them. Online predators often “groom” a minor with the end goal of meeting and engaging in sexual activity. "Grooming" is best described as a sexual predator’s premeditated method of manipulating a child to gain their trust with the end result being sexually themed.
The Statistics
Over 90 percent of all Americans between 12 and 17 years old are online and over 70 percent of teens access the internet on cell phones and other mobile devices.
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Over 15 percent of teens considered meeting someone they've only talked to online
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A large majority of teenagers have friends and followers on social media, in which they've never met in person.
Access to Victims
Online predators often groom children/teens and do so in a way that isn't seen as a danger to the community. Predators can often be everyday people who work, live in a house with family, have kids, and can even be involved in school activities or be around other children on a daily basis. They can often fly under the radar and aren't seen as a danger. Common grooming strategies include:
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Befriending parents, particularly single mothers, to gain access to their children. They use trust and manipulation of the single mother or even father and use that to gain access to the children.
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Offering babysitting services to busy parents or guardians. They may even appear to have a fake business or babysitting service.
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Holding a job that involves working with children such as at a hospital, school, after school program, daycare, or at a local center for children.
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Coaching sports teams that are filled with children/teenagers.
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Volunteering for nonprofits or youth service organizations.
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Loitering in places children frequent - playgrounds, parks, malls, game arcades, sports fields, etc.
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Befriending teens/young kids on social media (Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, etc.) and online gaming platforms such as Playstation, XBOX, and apps.
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Becoming a guardian or foster parent.
Fake
Profiles
Surprisingly, an alarming 55% of online social media profiles are inactive or fake. Almost 80% of online daters admit that they lie about at least one thing in their online dating profiles. There are many red flags that can alert people as to whether or not an account or profile is in fact real or legit. The following are signs that a dating or social media profile may not be real.
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There is a lot of ads or strange websites linking to their page which typically means it's a fake page.
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Lack of pictures, content, or interactions with other site users. This is typically the biggest red flag. If they have a Facebook page and it has one picture of themselves, no info about themselves, was created a few days ago, and has no posts, comments, or interactions with other users then most likely it's either a fake account, or a predator posing as a teenager.
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Female Predators
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