This isn’t my usual scam article.
I’m usually warning readers about con games involving catphishing or romance schemes, government impersonators, or scammers who threaten potential victims about missed jury duty or the illicit use of their Social Security number. If you’re a ‘scam article’ reader, you know there are a lot of other ways to separate people from their money or steal their identity.
This isn’t the usual scam. This warning is about scams that go to the core of our families. This scam involves our children and grandchildren, the kids in our neighborhood. And it’s frighteningly real. So bear with me, and read on.
The pandemic has been so isolating. We have been thrust into online ‘everything’ as businesses limited patrons (or closed) and schools went to online learning. For our kids, in-person connections with friends, teachers, counselors, and grandparents or other adult family members had been severed. The world of the Internet – strong enough pre-pandemic – has become even more consuming.
The increase in Internet use with the school systems due to Covid produced another of those Moments of Opportunity. Predators seek out the vulnerable. In this article, the vulnerable are our children.
This isn’t the usual scam.
Here is the point – The WV Press Association has reported that there has been an increase in reports of child sexual abuse related to the Internet. Increased time online increases the risk of connection with predators. Internet connections allow for anonymity. People don’t have to show their faces and if they show a face, it isn’t necessarily theirs. You can be anybody you want to be….or anybody that serves your purpose. Perhaps the purpose is for the predator alone or perhaps the predator’s objective is human trafficking.
How do these predators come on to our kids? They may pretend to be another child, a potential friend. They may get the kids to trust them (grooming) then get the child to send a photo. The report states that predators have been more aggressive during the pandemic, insisting to meet the child in person.
What can we do? The article notes some suggestions:
- Caregivers can block certain apps and require permission before downloading.
- Encourage our kids to contact us if they feel uncomfortable – any time of day. Let them know that we are there for them.
- Check with our kids. Encourage discussion. Support their openness with us.
- Let our kids know it’s OK to say NO.
- Empower kids by letting them know they can come to us and talk to us.
- Listen.
Kids can be challenging. They don’t always want to open up. They are learning who they are and asserting their autonomy. Kids want to be accepted, heard, acknowledged, respected. Don’t let it be an online predator that offers that instead of those of us who need to protect our kids.
Stay safe.
