The very dark side of social media

[Jimmy Higgins]

It is amazing how mankind can take something useful... and abuse it thoroughly. This article isn't an easy read, but goes into the online groups that exist to prey (in the most vile meaning of the word) on minors online. You know, as if grooming wasn't bad enough!

Abbigail Beccaccio, chief of the FBI’s Child Exploitation Operational Unit, estimated that thousands of children have been targeted by the online groups using these tactics, although she declined to discuss any groups by name.

“People are not understanding the severity, the speed at which their children can become victimized,” she said. “These are offenders that have the ability to change your child’s life in a matter of minutes.”

A nonprofit that directs reports of abuse against children from social media companies to law enforcement said it saw a sharp increase in this type of exploitation last year. Fallon McNulty, director of the CyberTipline at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said the center received hundreds of reports of minors extorted into hurting themselves last year and continues to receive dozens each month.

These online groups, she said, are responsible for “some of the most egregious online enticement reports that we’re seeing in terms of what these children are being coerced to do.”

This continues to show that our social media set ups aren't remotely safe or secure and people are able to get away with unspeakably horrible coercion. Honestly, they need a class in sixth grade about this stuff and then high school.

 

[Jarhyn]

It is amazing how mankind can take something useful... and abuse it thoroughly. This article isn't an easy read, but goes into the online groups that exist to prey (in the most vile meaning of the word) on minors online. You know, as if grooming wasn't bad enough!

Abbigail Beccaccio, chief of the FBI’s Child Exploitation Operational Unit, estimated that thousands of children have been targeted by the online groups using these tactics, although she declined to discuss any groups by name.

“People are not understanding the severity, the speed at which their children can become victimized,” she said. “These are offenders that have the ability to change your child’s life in a matter of minutes.”

A nonprofit that directs reports of abuse against children from social media companies to law enforcement said it saw a sharp increase in this type of exploitation last year. Fallon McNulty, director of the CyberTipline at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said the center received hundreds of reports of minors extorted into hurting themselves last year and continues to receive dozens each month.

These online groups, she said, are responsible for “some of the most egregious online enticement reports that we’re seeing in terms of what these children are being coerced to do.”

This continues to show that our social media set ups aren't remotely safe or secure and people are able to get away with unspeakably horrible coercion. Honestly, they need a class in sixth grade about this stuff and then high school.

Sixth grade seems a bit late to me.

As soon as someone gets their first ability to access the internet (note, ability, not opportunity), they need to be taught that the Internet is as dangerous as going outside, and people can do just as bad as abduct them. Kids should first be limited in only being able to interact with actual peers (in a way that seems anonymous to them but is not), and this data should be used by parents and educators to form lesson plans about how folks interact online.

All the lessons about trusting strangers and such should be covered.

Some situations on these platforms should even be engineered to allow mock interactions to be set up in class so people can be ready to respond to requests for pictures of houses or Amazon gift cards appropriately.

There should be an online safety class as soon as kids can use a phone or device well enough to get an Internet app open and type in a search.

This should be taught maybe in the third grade, and no, I don't think anyone should leave the third grade without at least a C in "internet comment etiquette" or whatever they call it.