Online child sex abuse is real, posing a threat that parents must understand to keep their kids safe.
Child sexual predators are constantly looking for places to engage and abuse children, including churches, schools, playgrounds, or summer camps. But with more adolescents and teens spending time on the internet, predators are now trying to groom and exploit kids online at an alarming rate through social media and video games.
The statistics are frightening:
• According to one FBI special agent, a child alone in their room with a tablet or smartphone is at a much greater risk of being sexually exploited than a child down the street at a park.
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• The FBI estimates approximately 500,000 active predators target kids every day.
• Last year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received 186,000 reports of online enticement – a 300% increase from 2021.
Understanding the Threat
The FBI has found that if a child creates an online profile with little to no barriers, a predator can find them almost instantly, sometimes within 15-20 minutes. And when a child chats with a stranger online after 9:00 p.m., they are 75% more likely to be interacting with a child predator.
Child sexual predators engage with children online to forge relationships and later arrange in-person meetings to perpetrate sexual abuse. Predators also coerce child victims into producing sexually explicit images or videos using manipulation, gifts, or threats—a crime called sextortion.
Online enticements are the most common tactics child predators employ to lure children. They can include:
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• Grooming kids through compliments, discussing shared interests, and “liking” children’s posts.
• Pretending to be younger than their actual age, closer to their intended victims’ ages.
• Offering incentives such as gift cards, alcohol, drugs, lodging, transportation, and food.
Once the predator establishes a relationship with the child, they will often:
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• Intentionally move their communications from one online platform to another, such as switching from social media to private video chat or messaging apps, to evade detection on sites with stricter safety protocols.
• Engage in sexual conversations and sexual role-playing as a grooming method rather than a goal.
• Ask the child for sexually explicit images of themselves or mutually shared images.
• Send or offer sexually explicit images of themselves.
Most child predators contact children through social media platforms, gaming sites, messenger apps, and even handyman sites. An NCMEC study shows the top sites for child sexual predator activity are Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Discord, and TikTok. Other sites where child predators target and contact children include:
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• Roblox
• Minecraft
• Fortnite
• Twitch
• Kik
• Skype
• Grindr
• Yik Yak
• Twitter/X
• Whisper
• MeetMe
• Bumble
• Me
• FM
• Holla
• Calculator+
• Skout
• Badoo
• Hot or Not
Essentially, any site geared toward kids creates an opportunity for a child predator to target children.
Take Steps To Protect Your Children Online
Heightened vigilance is necessary for parents to protect their children from online sexual predators.
The most important step is to have open and continuous conversations with kids about safe and appropriate behavior online. In an insightful New York Times article, How to Protect Your Children from Online Sexual Predators, Dr. Michael Salter, an internationally recognized expert in child sexual abuse, tells parents to emphasize to their children that we all have an obligation to treat people well and a right to be treated well by others, even online. Dr. Salter also recommends discussing with your child situations where they might feel unsafe and strategies they can use to stay safe — keep the conversation open so they feel comfortable coming to you if something happens that concerns them.
Parents should also set rules and boundaries for a child’s online interaction. In the same New York Times article, Dr. Sharon W. Cooper, a University of North Carolina professor and expert on sexual exploitation, explains that creating guidelines can be an effective means of communication with children. Parents can tell their kids they love them and want to protect them, and rules are a way to do that, including boundaries for:
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• The time a child can spend online and the times of day.
• The type of content the child is allowed to view (age-appropriate and prosocial).
• The idea that online access is a privilege, not a right.
• Use of privacy settings and parental controls to restrict children’s access to their online profiles.
• Being cautious when communicating online with anyone kids do not know in real life.
• Not meeting up with someone a child meets online without telling the parent and seeking the parent’s permission.
• Notifying a parent or other trusted adult at any point when the child feels uncomfortable with someone they meet online.
Next, parents should become familiar with sites their children frequent and spend time with them on new games and apps. Familiarizing themselves with these sites helps parents identify the risks, take measures to mitigate those dangers, and provide an opportunity to discuss the potential harm with children.
Parents should also learn the control settings that restrict and monitor the content and people kids encounter online. Many sites provide safety features that help parents mitigate the risks of online abuse. Dr. Cooper recommends Common Sense Media as a valuable site for parents to learn about different sites and their safety features.
The threat of child sexual abuse is growing as the internet and social media become more ingrained in everyday life, especially for young people. With this ever-increasing danger, parents must remain alert and take proactive measures to protect children online. Parents should stay informed about online threats and implement safety measures to protect their kids from sexual predators.
