A/S/L?

Hope many of you might have heard of the term "Online Predators". If not then its high time to know about it. Online predators has become the buzz word in the online world. A/S/L is one of the starting messages of online predators, which means Age/Sex/Location .There have been many instances where children have been abused by some online predator. Its also becoming a growing threat for the children and parents. Children in the adolescence are the prime target for the online predators.
Children are victimized by the conversations that take place in chat rooms or via email or by showing sexually explicit information and material. Most of the adolescent children are curious about sexuality and sexually explicit material and adolescence is the age when children try to move away from the total control of parents and start seeking to establish new relationships outside their family. For these reasons, some older children and adolescents actively seek out sexually explicit materials and strangers with a particular interest in them; and sex offenders who target children will exploit these tendencies. Young teens may also be attracted to and lured by online offenders who are close to their age. Although these people are not technically pedophiles, they may still be dangerous.
The general characteristics of an online predator are:
Online predators are usually:
1. Male
2. Seductive
3. Introverted
4. Sadistic
5. Sexually indiscriminate
Some online predators gradually seduce their targets through the use of attention, affection, kindness, and even gifts. They are often willing to devote considerable amounts of time, money, and energy to this process. They will be aware of the latest music and hobbies likely to interest kids, and will listen to and sympathize with kids' problems. They also try to lower young people's inhibitions by gradually introducing sexual content into their conversations.
Other predators are faster workers: they engage in sexually explicit conversations with children immediately. This more direct approach may include harassment or stalking. Predators may also be evaluating the kids they meet online for future face-to-face contact.
Some of the ways how parents can curb online predations of their children are:
1. Talk to the children about sexual predators and potential online dangers.
2. Abstain young children from using online chat sessions and if children participate in chat rooms, then parents should make it point to know the chat rooms that their children as visiting.
3. Keep the computer with internet access in a common area in the house.
4. Young children should be made to share the family email address.
5. Teach children not to reply to any instant messaging or emails from strangers.
6. If all precautions fail and your kids do encounter an online predator, remember that they're not to blame in any way. The offender always bears the complete responsibility for his actions.
The symptoms to find if a kid is being targeted for online predating are as follows:
1. If the child spends too much time on the internet. Parents should keep a watch on how much time and in what activities children spend online.
2. If you find pornography on the computer, because most of the online predators use pornography to sexually victimize children.
3. If a child or teen receives phone calls from people you don't know or makes calls to numbers you don't recognize.
4. If a child or teen receives mail, gifts, or packages from someone you don't know.
5. If a child or teen becomes withdrawn from family and friends or quickly turns the computer monitor off or changes the screen if an adult comes into the room.
The sad part is that India is still ignorant about this kind of cyber crimes and hence the Indian Judicial system does not have any law against cyber crimes as far as I know. If anyone has any information on this please do throw some light on it.

(Source:Media Awareness Network)

Varta...