Online Predators – Are They Really a Threat?

The picture above is of a real product I found in Target after getting lost in the electronics department while looking for 90 Millas, the new Gloria Estefan CD. The only thing more ridiculous than the notion that a piece of software is going to protect your children from online predators is the notion that online predators are actually a threat. I mean look at the illustration on the box! Notice how evil that man looks sitting in the dark, wearing those menacing glasses with the light from the monitor reflecting eerily across the lenses. I have a hard time believing anybody that scary could actually exist.

If you’re reading this, I’m going to assume you spend a fair amount of time on the internet. When was the last time you ran into an online predator? There isn’t some online underground predator subculture, where sexual predators congregate and wait for underage girls to accidentally stumble in. Nobody, even if they do have urges to touch minors, is stupid enough to actually try it online.

Below is an actual chat log between me (posing as a 16 year-old girl), and “badboy1337.” As I predicted, I was rejected - just like in high school. No matter how much I threw myself at him, he turned me down.

 

cameronthehottie: hey... what's up?   badboy1337: hi   badboy1337: as; p;z   badboy1337: plz   cameronthehottie: 16/f/ga   cameronthehottie: you?   badboy1337: 28 m montana   cameronthehottie: cool   badboy1337: what u lookin for tonight   cameronthehottie: cyber?   badboy1337: u r to young for me sorry   cameronthehottie: are you sure?   badboy1337: yes find me in a couple of years ok   cameronthehottie: well, you're not a very bad boy are you?   badboy1337: i just dont get off on kids   cameronthehottie: I got pics...   cameronthehottie: ?   badboy1337: no thanks now leave me alone'

 

That doesn’t resemble the chat logs on To Catch a Predator in the least. Now, this could be for one of two reasons. The first is that he genuinely doesn’t like underage kids, or perhaps he prefers little boys. The second is that he’s not an idiot; he’s seen Dateline NBC, and is going to do everything in his power to avoid meeting that snide bastard Chris Hansen.

In either case, my point still stands strong. So why are parents willing to shell out $30 of their hard-earned cash on an unnecessary piece of software? The only reason is because of alarmist news stories. It’s exactly the same thing that happens whenever major news conglomerates decide something is dangerous.

Do you remember Y2K? Do you remember how CNN, NBC, ABC, BBC, and every other acronym in the media told us that all of our computers were going to crash? And that when they crashed, the world as we knew was going to collapse? Bank accounts were supposed to disappear, convicts were going to suddenly have their records wiped clean, cars were going to burst into flame, and planes were going to plummet from the heavens. It was going to be an apocalypse, but without the cool car chases portrayed in Mad Max. People actually went out and bought many years’ worth of food and water.

But, did anything actually happen? No, we all watched the ball drop on New Year’s Eve like we did every other year. Planes continued to fly. Our cars continued to sit in our driveways, as cold and dented as ever. Convicts went back to their cycle of illegal activity, imprisonment, redemption, and back again. And, our bank accounts were left in their previous negative state.

Online sexual predators are not a threat. Your child isn’t going to get abducted on Myspace. Your little precious isn’t going to be seduced while they surf the internet innocently. Even if your kid is a dumb slut who frequents shady chat rooms, you can be sure that no man alive is stupid enough to even converse with her.

 

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