Rethinking 'stranger danger'

Janis Wolak is a mother of two (17 and 20), sociologist, and research professor at UNH's Crimes Against Children Research Center. I recently heard her present her latest findings on Net-based sexual exploitation of children and found them very pertinent to parents. I'm sharing them with you - in a two-part series in the SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter (starting this week)- because I haven't seen Janis's fresh perspective represented anywhere in the media or other public forums.

What stood out to me in Janis's findings (soon to be published by the Journal of Adolescent Health) was that "stranger danger" is not the right warning message for teenagers who spend time in online chat, where they are nonetheless most likely to encounter strangers. Young victims of online sexual exploitation don't think of their assailants as strangers. In 50% of cases involving online exploitation, investigators believed the victims were in love with or felt close to offenders. (For perspective, parents should know that Net-initiated sex crimes against kids represent a fraction of overall sexual exploitation of children in the US - in 2000, there were 500 arrests for Net-related crimes vs. 65,000 overall.) For more on this, click here.