Internet Moral Panics : The Social Media Predator Essay

In a research article by Alice Marwick and Danah Boyd (2014) discuss this connection between young adults and social media. They explore this myth that teens and young adults do not simply care about their privacy when online. Marwick and Boyd (2014) note that, “We argue that the dynamics of sites like Facebook have forced teens to alter their conceptions of privacy to account for the networked nature of social media” (p. 1051). Along with what they are arguing Marwick and Boyd use their past practices and experiences to offer a sort of model of networked privacy to thoroughly explain hpw privacy is achieved in networked publics. In their article Marwick and Boyd (2014) quickly debunk the myth that teenagers do not simply care about their online

Online predators and Stalkers can easily gain access to social media users’ personal information by either requesting to be a user’s friend or simply finding a way around the user's privacy settings. According to June Ahn, chat rooms are public and is an unmonitored space where online predators are more likely to be. “Adolescents are less likely to be targeted for unwanted sexual solicitation in social media than chat rooms.”(Ahn, June) I have found that, 412 adolescents were more likely to talk with strangers. This is hazardous for young children and adolescents because their lack of life experience leads them to blindly accept all friend request. The effort to seem popular by having many friends online can damage credibility and truth worthiness.

However, “the big difference in today's electronic world isn't what at risk children may say - but where they say it. For many school districts the answer is social media monitoring.” (Richez, 2015). However, it is not as simple as it may seem. Privacy and trust in online social media monitoring is a very controversial issue. With all the security leaks and hacks that have happened, online users are more than ever reminded of the need to protect their information.

It’s no coincidence that a 16-year-old teenage girl, who thought she was meeting with her teenage pen pal, met with a 43-year old man and came up missing the next morning. It’s also no coincidence that a 13-year-old homosexual boy, who was constantly harassed with cruel messages online, hung himself last night. CNN reports that teenagers in the US spend approximately nine hours on social media a day. That’s over 250 total hours of average social media usage a month! Meanwhile, within the countless hours that the typical teenager spends online, it only takes one second for trouble to transpire. The large amount of time that teenagers spend online paired with the millions of users on major networks leave the door for social media abuse wide open.

Checking the news, keeping up with friends, and sharing quips of witty posts of a hundred and forty characters or less are the normal things for anybody to do while using a social media network. With ages ranging from the very young to the old, therein lies an assimilation of individuals whose information, location, and almost anything else are within their profile, just far enough away to keep the average stalker at bay, but close enough for a person with immoral intents to reach out and simply snatch. As the article, “Social Networking” observes, “…as Internet socializing grows, so do fears that the practice exposes the vulnerable – especially young people – to sexual predators” (627). Sexual predators are not the only people prowling around the Internet, for the range of criminals run the gamut, from potential murderers to vicious kidnappers, with their greatest weapon being something nearly everyone has access to in this modern era. Thus, through social media platforms, alone, these websites contain the information of millions upon millions of unique individuals, where, sometimes, it is as simple as scrolling down to select someone to hack into next. Often enough, these Internet forums are places where even a high school kid can do some damage, but not in the form of using personal information for selfish

We share our feelings, exact locations, and activities so easily through means of social media. These types of posts generally give away too much personal information which can further result in safety issues. Privacy isn’t such a big deal for teenagers now. They don’t realize the implications that comes with posting all of their life details.. This is where privacy needs to be of greater demand to keep children’s lives and secrets safe.

Online predators are a very real danger for internet users, especially young people, who need to be careful about how they share information about themselves and how that information may be put to use. With so much information on the internet, it is possible to trace the home address of a person without too much information. Posts on social media or use of location tracking apps, may alert predators to a child’s movements, routines, address and even when they are at home alone. Even though there is a common perception that vulnerable children and girls are most at risk, this is a very real danger for all children.

The posting of location and where they live has gone from 61% to 71% in 12 years. 71% of teens post their school name, which went up from 41%. All this poses a threat to identity theft or stalking. On social media profiles 92% of people post their real name and 82% put their birthday. 12% of teenage twitter users don't know if their tweets are private or not. 19% say that they have posted a photo, video, or comment they later regretted. Almost 60% of 18-35 year olds think people share too much info about their personal thoughts, experiences and location. 24% of teens confess that they don't actually know or like all the people the accept follow requests from. From all the posting, sharing info, and interacting online about 27 hours per week is

In our society today, social media is a monster because it has created unrealistic social expectations and unhealthy relationships with ourselves and others. Social media has become a central platform to everyone in our society today and can cause many problems for a large portion of the users. Many of the problems that associate with social media can cause mental and physical harm to users such as, depression, which can lead to suicidal thoughts or actions, eating disorders, and even lowered self-esteem due to the unreasonable comparisons that people make when compared to popular and successful people. One major issue that social media has brought up is the exploitation of the anonymous identification which bullies use to hide from their victims. This can single handedly cause the issues that was recently stated. The social media crowd is now influencing young teens and kids to do drugs. It causes a sort of pressure for some adolescents to engage in illegal activities such as, smoking and drinking. This can be a real danger because they are too young to realize what they are doing to their bodies and could truly put their lives in danger. Social media also causes a learning deficiency in a large portion of students. These students are constantly on their phones and it takes their full attention away from the task at hand. This causes procrastination of assignments and can lead to lower grades. They are not disciplined enough to control themselves and stay away from their

Over the past few years something has taken a toll in most people’s lives, we use it, love it, talk about it, and check it almost every hour of every day: this thing is called social networks. It was only a few years back, in 2003, when MySpace was discovered, and in 2004 when Mark Zuckerberg established Facebook, and soon after in 2006 Twitter followed. These sites became more than just an online destination, but a way of life. Notifications, follower counts, friend requests, photo comments- all what might seem like silly things that teenagers and adults alike await the moment they come home to check. We scroll unconsciously through feeds and pictures of people we barely know, from the inquisitive human nature. At school everyone is

Adolescent social media activity continues to grow, creating technology dependence in younger generations. Technology remains in its prime throughout the twenty first century with advancements in internet and smartphone capabilities. As technology becomes more accessible to younger generations, minors continue to spend more of their day trapped in a cyber universe and disconnected from reality. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow individuals to interact and communicate with one another without direct confrontation of the people they are communicating with. Because of this ability to remain practically anonymous

Even with the dangerous developments in social media over the past several years, many parents have chosen to allow their children to use these sites despite age restrictions. There are three reasons to argue for age restrictions on social media sites: lack of supervision by parents, targeting of children by pedophiles, and the prevalence of children falsifying their age. The ability of pedophiles to conceivably target children with social media proves that this is an issue that parents need to examine so that they may better protect their children. The threat from pedophiles causes an enormous problem for millions of children on social media sites. Unfortunately, Western Daily Press states that “Pedophiles can get away with grooming young teenagers on social media sites.” My essay will argue that age restrictions need to be in place, and additional regulations should ensure that law enforcement agencies have the tools required to supervise underage children 's use of social media, including Facebook and Twitter. Quoting from Business Wire, “three out of four parents feel that social network sites are not protecting children.” According to Irish Independent, “four out of ten children falsify their age” when using social media. I will also argue that additional research on this topic can be used to raise the awareness of parents, and can also help to alert the children themselves to the danger. My essay will also examine questions, such as: How can social media sites protect

In relation to privacy, social networking and many other genres of the internet are one of the main and easiest places to track down people, many naïve victims, posts up their details on their profile, making it easy to enable stalkers or strangers to have advantage of virtually meeting you. This problem has caused many families to live in fear, not knowing how vulnerable they are to the outside world, where

Social networking sites are web-based platforms used by many individuals to interact with friends and family over the Internet, as well as to build social relations with people who share similar interests. Each user has an individual account represented by a profile that allows them to share personal interests such as pictures, music, videos, hobbies, activities and events within their individual networks. Most networking sites are free of cost and only require basic information such as full name, date of birth and an email, in order to create an account, through which the user can have access to millions of other profiles and their shared data. The personal information used to create an account is not verified and could be effortlessly made-up, making it easy for predators to create profiles with bogus information and, allowing them to pose as someone else. Many parents consider that these social networking sites enhance their children’s communication skills and social connections, while serving as a form of entertaining portal that allows young people to express themselves. Social networking sites have become a contemporary medium of connection highly appealing to teenagers. However, the lack of secured member identity confirmation on these sites poses a risk especially to teenagers that are easily impressionable and naive. This gives predators the upper hand when it comes to having all the tools to facilitate them taking advantage of their targets. The dangers this way of

First of all, social networking is dangerous for children, teens, and adults. To be specific, in stating the dangers for teens, (Allen) states, “ But in other cases, disclosure reaches a level that is troubling for parents and those concerned about the safety of online teens, and once children put this information online, they will never get it back”. This quote explains that teens will put their personal information on social media and once they put this information online, it will always be there. The information can always be found and brought back up. This is causing parents to be worried for their children because sometimes this can mean that teens will put their location online. There is also a way that apps can track individuals if they