Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2007 23:11:41 GMT
Hi all
Pedophiles!
My 12 year old daughter changed schools recently and in doing so added a huge number of new contact names to her MSN and Bebo Internet accounts. Whilst chatting to one of the contacts added, she became confused when it appeared that this “13 year old boy” actually came from Glasgow and was not a pupil at her new school. She was mortified when, after chatting inanely over a period of time, this contact out of the blue asked her to show him her legs with the webcam when she was wearing a skirt and to bend over the sofa! Being the smart cookie that she is, she refused, called him some choice names, and instantly blocked and deleted him, while immediately telling us about it. We were then able to report it to MSN and the police for further investigation.
So why am I telling you this? Because we consider ourselves “smart” parents. Our computer is in the living room with us where we can read what is being written, we have parental controls on our computer preventing her from accessing adult websites, she knows not to add unknown contacts or give out personal details, we are both computer literate and know how to use MSN and Bebo ourselves so can record her conversations and read them. In addition when she uses the webcam we are clearly visible in the background of the room so one would think this was enough to put off potential pedophiles. Obviously not! I wanted to tell this story to make other parents aware that no matter how responsible your child is, or how ever much you scrutinize what your child is doing on the net, it is still very, very easy for your child to be approached. The blatancy of this particular approach makes me feel this person must have had confidence that his request might be met, so I wonder if more naïve girls might have actually acquiesced, thinking this to be some kind of joke?
Although nothing further happened to our daughter, the feeling that someone unknown has even made those kinds of suggestions to her is sickening and upsetting. It leaves us, as parents, feeling furiously angry and our daughter feeling shocked and wary and far more aware of issues we would rather not have had to discuss with her yet. Please learn from our story. Look at www.thinkyouknow.co.uk for more tips and www.parentsonline.gov.uk/safety
Ben
Pedophiles!
My 12 year old daughter changed schools recently and in doing so added a huge number of new contact names to her MSN and Bebo Internet accounts. Whilst chatting to one of the contacts added, she became confused when it appeared that this “13 year old boy” actually came from Glasgow and was not a pupil at her new school. She was mortified when, after chatting inanely over a period of time, this contact out of the blue asked her to show him her legs with the webcam when she was wearing a skirt and to bend over the sofa! Being the smart cookie that she is, she refused, called him some choice names, and instantly blocked and deleted him, while immediately telling us about it. We were then able to report it to MSN and the police for further investigation.
So why am I telling you this? Because we consider ourselves “smart” parents. Our computer is in the living room with us where we can read what is being written, we have parental controls on our computer preventing her from accessing adult websites, she knows not to add unknown contacts or give out personal details, we are both computer literate and know how to use MSN and Bebo ourselves so can record her conversations and read them. In addition when she uses the webcam we are clearly visible in the background of the room so one would think this was enough to put off potential pedophiles. Obviously not! I wanted to tell this story to make other parents aware that no matter how responsible your child is, or how ever much you scrutinize what your child is doing on the net, it is still very, very easy for your child to be approached. The blatancy of this particular approach makes me feel this person must have had confidence that his request might be met, so I wonder if more naïve girls might have actually acquiesced, thinking this to be some kind of joke?
Although nothing further happened to our daughter, the feeling that someone unknown has even made those kinds of suggestions to her is sickening and upsetting. It leaves us, as parents, feeling furiously angry and our daughter feeling shocked and wary and far more aware of issues we would rather not have had to discuss with her yet. Please learn from our story. Look at www.thinkyouknow.co.uk for more tips and www.parentsonline.gov.uk/safety
Ben