An article has appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald written by an investigative reporter regarding pedophiles and the Internet

I read the article and wasn't at all surprised at the disgust expressed by the journalist (a male) when he joined Skype posting a profile of a 14 year old girl living in Sydney.  He had no sooner posted the profile and the hits began from all over the world.  He was faced with sexual advances, webcam images of males masturbating and of course, abuse.

I always read these articles and see the writers as being very naive in 2007 to only just be finding out these facts about the Internet and what goes on below the cover of an excellent venue for education and entertainment.  My stories and articles for a number of years have focused on these very issues having been confronted with the same disgusting advances from strangers over the years via ICQ in particular and Yahoo Messenger and chat rooms.

I was very innocently approached and then unbelievably sexually hit on by these morons and when I said quite emphatically that I was not interested, I was verbally abused with filthy words.  I very soon disposed of both ICQ and Yahoo off my computer as my intent was to meet people from around the world and make pen friends via the Internet, not to be abused.  I also absented myself from Yahoo chat rooms for the same reasons and have never gone back.

The problem is the gate was opened and the horse bolted and there is no way it can be reined back in as the Internet is a wormhole full of wormholes where these people hide.  The only way it can be slowed down is by people complaining about the things they are subjected to and reporting them to the correct authorities.  If one keeps logs then there is a probably better than even chance of the perpetrators being brought to justice.  As in all things, evidence is necessary otherwise vindictive people could lie about others and cause grievance to the innocent. 

The Internet is like any other society, it is full of liars, thieves, pedophiles, mentally unstable individuals, harassment, stalking and cowards.  The only difference really is that the mongrels can hide on the Internet and it takes quite a lot of investigation and work behind the scenes to catch up with them.

As I always do, today I am once again beating the drum of parents taking back responsibility for the actions of their children and either monitoring them whilst they are using the Internet, or banning use of it altogether.  It's not a game anymore, it's gone past the stage where people could bury their heads in the sand and say 'it won't happen to me' because the odds are getting close to where practically every person who uses a chat program of any type will at some stage be confronted by sexual abuse in the written form.

The fact that parents will allow their children to be bait for this type of activity is, in my opinion, close to a criminal act and one of neglect of their responsibilities to care for their children's safety.  Would they knowingly allow a 10 year old, as an example, to go out of a night and be bait for sex offenders?  I doubt it - and yet they do this every day by allowing that same child to use the Internet unsupervised.

If you read this and you know of children that use the Internet unsupervised, please speak to the parents and direct them to the many websites where the online activities of the millions is spelt out in no uncertain terms.  And, if that doesn't wake them up to the dangers they are allowing their children to be subjected to, then they should be charged with neglect.  That's how serious I consider this issue to be.  Parents have to be educated because a great many of them don't even use the Internet and don't want to learn about it. They are more than happy that it keeps little Suzie quiet and she is being educated.  What she is being educated in doesn't really concern them.

Let's remember that I am talking about interaction here on the Internet, not about the Internet in total.  It is a wonderful source of knowledge and entertainment for all ages and is the most fantastic medium as far as I am concerned.  May it live for ever but let's all hope that the very unhealthy, seedy and dangerous side of it is curbed dramatically by more arrests and more threats of heavy fines and jail or gaol as we spell it in Australia.

Keep safe :)

Vena

 PS  More news in the SMH Friday 29/7/2007 regarding Skype and the stories coming in about sexual abuse online by some Skype users