An Online Epidemic

Originally posted on April 21, 2006

Gonzales, the Attorney General made a wake-up call to the people of America. The Attorney General himself has declared the problem with child pornography an online epidemic. Click here to read the article. He referred to it as a real threat, and I completely agree. It is a growing threat and at a rapid rate.

As I have tried to tell some people, they just don’t want to realize the harsh reality. People need to understand the natural dangers of not educating the children to take precaution measurements with their online activities. I don’t advocate taking the computers out of their bedrooms, but I do believe that a video camera has no place being in a child’s bedroom because they can do whatever they wish to with it behind closed doors.

Parents may think they know their children enough to trust them to make the right choices. They may be capable of making good choices, but they still make a lot of mistakes and learn from them. But to become sexually active on the Internet is a regret or trauma one may live with for the rest of their lives. The only way I can think of keeping a computer in the bedroom is to make house rules that the parents reserve the rights to inspect the computers on a frequent basis to ensure that their children are sticking to the rules. Otherwise, don’t connect them to the Internet except on the family computer.

The Internet is such a wonderful tool, I was blown away by it when my father subscribed to an Internet provider with a $25 package and we were limited to 10 hours per month back in the 90s. Just 10 hours a month? Not only to mention the dreadful slow modem we had. Nowadays, you can go as fast as the wind and stay on as long as you wish to. Now, with children being so savvy with the gadgets today, they can access anywhere without asking an adult for help. It also means they are more vulnerable to the dangers. Online predators are mentally ill and all twisted up in their heads, but they know how to lure children by just having an online conversation.

In fact, child prostitution is getting more common these days. According to the experts, an estimate of half the street-level prostitutes are under the age of 18 in Atlanta, Georgia. A large number of the sex clients are believed to be from out of the city and state. Sex tourism is a growing industry and it isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Click here to read an article on sex tourism thriving in the southern states of America.

It is a growing problem everywhere else including Canada, Romania, Taiwan and many more countries around the world. A frightening threat and not enough noises are being made about it. According to a study done at the university of Pennsylvania, there is an estimated 200,000-300,000 underage girls participating in the prostitution industry. The FBI has pinpointed 14 cities in the USA as centres where children are being exploited. The cities listed are Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, Tampa and Washington D.C. I can’t say I’m surprised considering the population of all these cities and the strong communication networks that are invested in these cities.

I imagine it’s the same case in Canadian cities like Calgary, Edmonton, Montréal, Toronto, Vancouver and more. Despite the laws we already passed, the problem is still growing. Gonzales is right, it is an online epidemic, potentially the biggest online epidemic we have ever encountered in our lifetime.

Now, are you going to talk to your children about the dangers of talking to strangers on the Internet? Don’t wait till it happens to one of your children.

Do it now and they will love you for it even if they didn’t see the point of having the conversation at the beginning, they will realize it sometimes after the talk. They don’t want to put themselves in situations where they are being asked to take off their clothes in front of a web camera with a pedophile watching.

Spare yourself the trauma of having to deal with such a situation. If this isn’t enough for you, then I don’t know what will. I don’t believe a parent would be pleased if they were to stumble onto a pornographic image or video and discover that it’s his/her child.

A big wake-up call to the people of Canada and America is needed.

Badly.

Special Thank to Magatsu of 'The People's Blog, Rants & News' for his contribution to the subject.