Sometimes a study produces data that at first glance appears to
be a step in the right direction, but upon closer examination
reveals a danger as ominous as ever.
Sometimes a study produces data that at first glance appears to be a step in the right direction, but upon closer examination reveals a danger as ominous as ever.
Such was the case this week when researchers reported that fewer young Internet users have been targeted for Internet solicitations than they were five years ago.
On the face of it, this is good news. Internet sexual harassment is one of the more creepy elements of our recent technological revolution, and if certain behaviors have been reduced it is good for everyone. But let’s face it, the numbers still stink. Researchers for the University of New Hampshire National Center for Missing and Exploited Children show that one in seven youth – between the ages of 10 and 17 – received unwanted solicitations of a sexual nature, down from one in five in 2000. So there is some progress.
But the progress comes with a caveat. It is possible that solicitations are down because kids have become so savvy with the Internet that they have become more adept at avoiding harassment, porn ads, gambling ads and the rest. And the report concluded that the most serious forms of harassment, including those where youth were attempted to be coerced into meeting strangers in person, have actually increased.
That is frightening, intensely uncomfortable for kids, who are unlikely to say anything about it, and awful for parents. Further, the study also shows that kids are subject to more pornographic images than in 2000, and that the ads more commonly depict “sexual deviance or violence” than previously. An accompanying news article goes on to state: “One-third of all students surveyed reported being subject to pornographic ads they never wanted to see, up from 22 percent in 2000.” Most of the youth being harassed are female.
The Internet revolution has also become a youth phenomenon. Sites like MySpace are as common to youth vernacular as television shows were in the past three decades. But for the most part, television shows, particularly network, have been regulated for content. Much of the Internet is akin to a Wild West-type of frontier.
Most of the kids, and many parents, seem to know what they are doing, as one local parent said in a Free Lance article published on Wednesday. We sure hope this is the case. Because while these new numbers may not lie, they may also gloss over some ugly truths. Mainly, that the Internet is not only a new frontier for information, but also the worst kinds of creeps.
