Don't talk to strangers on the Internet

Teenagers should avoid talking to strangers on the internet, in order to avoid being victimised. Researchers from the Internet Solutions for Kids, Inc., California conducted a telephonic survey of nearly 1,500, ten to seventeen years old Internet users, meeting people online, talking about sex with people known only online, and having unknown people in one's buddy list were associated with a significantly higher likelihood of becoming a victim of online harassment and sexual solicitation. Aggressive online behaviour such as making derogatory comments or frequently embarrassing others over the Internet also significantly raised the odds of unwanted online advances. On the other hand, simply sharing personal information online, either by posting it on online communities or actively sending it to someone online, a practice that Internet safety programmes generally frown on did not increase the odds of being victimised in cyberspace. Having a profile on online communities or sending personal information are not the types of behaviour to be concerned about. On the other hand, talking about sex with people known only online is. The researchers examined the association between unwanted sexual solicitation and harassment over the Internet and several different types of potentially risky behaviour. The behaviours included sending and posting personal information; making rude or nasty comments to someone online; harassing or embarrassing someone online; downloading files; talking about sex with people known only online; meeting people online in multiple different ways; having people in your buddy list you know only online; visiting x-rated sites; and downloading images from a file sharing program. One in five adolescents reported unwanted harassment online in the previous year. One in four adolescents said they had engaged in four or more of the online risk behaviours in the past year. These teens were 11 times more likely to report online harassment than those reporting none of the online behaviours. In many cases, what we see to be most influential in explaining the likelihood of Internet victimisation is a pattern of these 'risky' behaviour instead of individual behaviour alone. Hence, the message for the parents is that just as they need to know who their children are with and where they are in the off-line world, they should also know who they are talking to and what they are doing in the online world. There is no doubt that the accelerating pace of technology has dramatically changed the experience of childhood. We need to develop and test pragmatic strategies for teaching Internet hygiene to children.