Online Sexual Predators

The nature of online sexual exploitation is widely misunderstood: “Instead of pedophiles (ie individuals with sexual interests in children) preying on young children, most Internet-initiated sex crimes involve young adults (mostly men) who target and seduce teenagers into sexual encounters.” Similarly, child sexual abuse material is most frequently produced by victims’ family members, with fathers being the single most common perpetrators. Even in cases of sextortion, 60 percent of youth who are victims know the perpetrators offline.

Help! Someone shared a photo of me without my consent! – Tip Sheet

1. You can start by asking the person who shared it to take it down or stop sharing it. Kids report that this works more often than not!
2. Ask the service or platform where it was shared to take it down. If you’re under 18, they may be required by law to take it down, and most also have a policy of taking down any photos that were shared without the subject’s permission.
   Cell Phones and Texting, Cyberbullying, Digital Citizenship, Gender Representation, Sexting, Sexual Exploitation, Social Networking

Sexual Exploitation - Safety Tips

As adults, we want to foster resilience in young people, starting when they’re young. This can be done by teaching them how to handle harassing messages or requests that make them feel uncomfortable – on the internet or in the schoolyard – and, as they get older, by teaching them how to spot and respond to emotional manipulation. The good news is that most teens are effectively handling online requests from strangers – the bigger challenge is helping them handle sexual advances from people they know.

Raising Digitally Resilient Kids

The Raising Digitally Resilient Kids parent workshop outlines how parents and guardians can support children’s well-being and help them balance the risks and benefits of digital media. Based on insights from MediaSmarts’ research with youth, the workshop provides an overview of online risk categories and provides resources and essential strategies that participants can take to manage these risks.

Talking to your kids about pornography

It is natural for adolescents to be curious about sex: MediaSmarts’ research suggests that one in six grade 7- 11 students use the Internet to look for information about sexual health. Twenty percent of kids that age look for pornography online, but a third see it without looking for it — and close to half take steps to keep from seeing it.

Communicating Safely Online: Tip Sheet for Parents and Trusted Adults

a. Types of Unhealthy Online Relationships

Online exploitation is when someone uses digital media to find teens and get them involved in romantic or sexual relationships.

Sexting: Shifting the Focus from Victim-Blaming to Respect and Consent

Few issues capture our anxiety about young people and digital media so perfectly as sexting. As with technologies at least as far back as the telegraph, much of this anxiety has focused specifically on girls and women.

Sexting and youth: Confronting a modern dilemma

It’s hard to think of a recent digital technology issue that’s captured the public imagination more than sexting. This may be because it combines elements of the classic moral panic with more modern “technopanic,” provoking worries not just about the morality of our children – and, in particular, young girls – but also about the possible effects of technology on how we grow, think and behave. As with most panics, of course, the issue is substantially more complicated and less sensational than we perceive it to be, and while it’s unlikely that our worries about sexting will ever seem in retrospect to be as absurd as our grandparents’ fears about crime comics, MediaSmarts’ new data shows that many of our beliefs and assumptions on the subject need closer examination.

Sexual Exploitation – Overview

The Internet offers young people important opportunities to socialize with their friends and families as well as to find people who share common interests and communities that can provide emotional support. It is also inevitable that at an age where young people are starting to explore their sexuality offline, they will do so online in these interactive environments as well.

Communicating Safely Online: Tip Sheet for Youth

a. Types of Unhealthy Online Relationships

Exploitation: Some people use digital media to get teenagers involved in relationships they’re not ready for. They do this by finding someone who is vulnerable and then showering them with attention, sympathy, affection and kindness, all to persuade the victim that they love and understand them.