This article that I got from ‘The Straits Times’ is about a US study that shows that Internet sex predators do not act as teenagers teen to lure unsuspecting victims into face-to-face meetings that result in violent rapes, instead they are adults who make their intentions of a sexual encounter quite plain, direct and straightforward to vulnerable young teenagers who often believe they are in love with the sex predator.
In this current modern world, where the internet allows quick and easy communication between people from all around the world, where people can impersonate anyone or act like someone totally different from themselves, teenagers will obviously become more vulnerable to online sex predators because many teenagers are unable to follow a simple rule that we all learn when we are young, ‘do not go out with strangers’.
Why are these sex predators able to strike? What should these teenagers understand to prevent themselves from becoming victims? The article states what the sex predators act like, but I believe there can be more.
Not going out with strangers is such a simple task, yet many fail to accomplish it. Why? I think that this is because teenagers nowadays are very curious about these types of issues. They would also definitely be exited, anxious, or curious to meet the person they ‘love’, ‘Curiosity killed the cat’, a simple phrase that actually means a lot, could actually prevent these teenagers from becoming victims. They should understand that these sex predators will never be able to strike nor attack them if these victims do not step out of their houses to meet the sex predator. What I believe is worse is that these sex predators have already explicitly stated they would like to have sex, yet these victims still voluntarily walk into the tiger’s den. I think that these teenagers should exercise some awareness about these sex predators and have some restraint to not go out with them. The teenagers need to understand that strangers whom they meet online should never be trusted totally if the stranger would like to progress to a real life meeting.
What I think that these teenagers need to know, is that they have to draw a fine line between reality and virtual reality. They need to able to distinguish the difference between them and leave them separated instead of clumping them together. Virtual reality can never be combined with love to create ‘virtual love’. Large sums of teenagers fall in love with the people they meet online and these relationships rarely ever last or progress to a deeper stage. Teenagers need to understand that strangers, whom they meet online, should be regarded as online friends and only as online friends. Treating them like a friend whom one knows in real life is impossible. An online friend is just a virtual character in a game, their actions can be faked, their personality can be faked, and their looks can be faked.
Link: http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Tech%2B%2526%2BScience/STIStory_208093.html
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