Parents, did you accidentally give your kids an all-access pass to an international network of pedophiles and perverts for Christmas? If you gifted your kid (or kids) a shiny new tablet or smart phone over the holidays, chances are you probably have. It's an innocent mistake to make, but it could prove incredibly dangerous. Just ask a pair of parents from the U.K. who say more than a dozen pedophiles were able to contact their 10-year-old daughter through her brand new iPad–despite them taking "all sensible safety measures" to protect her.
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The unidentified girl's parents say they'd given their daughter the tablet to help her with her schoolwork. But just a few weeks later, her mother checked the tablet and was "terrified" to discovered that their little girl had been contacted by at least sixteen men–many who'd asked the little girl to do unspeakable things to and for them.
The gross men used popular apps such as Skype and Snapchat to send the pre-teen sexually explicit messages. According to the girl's father, one man begged the minor to undress in front of a web cam for him. When she refused, he pleaded, "Your parents won't come into your room in the time it will take to get out of your pajamas." Another man offered to transfer the girl money so that she could travel to meet up with him. And in yet another frightening exchange, a sucio wrote: "Open cam baby open," later adding, "plzzzzzz I like sex. What problem r u no interest in sex." Mind you, most of these men knew the girl was only 10 years old!
Perhaps most troubling of all is the fact that the chica's parents thought they'd taken "all sensible safety measures" to protect their daughter from online predators. Obviously they hadn't. But don't get wrong. I'm not blaming the girl's parents; the pervs are the real bad guys here. That said, I believe there are a number of things parents can do to at least decrease the likelihood of their children coming into contact with pedophiles and online miscreants.
Before giving your child their own smart phone or tablet, take time to learn the ins and outs of the device, and learn how to set the privacy settings and parental controls. Also, talk to your kids about Internet safety. Remind them that the internet isn't Las Vegas. What happens online doesn't always stay online. Your words, scandalous photos, and dubious contacts can and will come back to haunt–and hunt–you!
Image via ebayink/Flickr
