Hey PUG! - Identity Theft
Finn thinks his password is strong enough to keep his mom’s valuable data from online theft. PUG and Miki are not so sure.
According to UN and FBI estimates, at any given moment, there are 750,000 predators searching for child pornography.
According to FBI estimates, at any given moment, there are 750,000 predators online.
If that number sounds scary, you might be comforted by the good work of Sweetie, a computer simulation of a 10-year-old from the Philippines who spends her time talking to potential online predators. Created by a group of Dutch researchers at Terre des Hommes, an international non-profit organization that works for children’s rights, Sweetie was able to attract the attention of 20,000 online predators, identifying 1000 of them, and sending this information directly to Interpol.
Despite the success of this two-month operation, this type of harassment of children on the internet persists. In most cases, predators are willing to give money to children to perform certain acts in front of the camera. Some of them even seek to meet their victims in person.
The good news is that the success against offenders has encouraged the researchers at Terre des Hommes to develop Sweetie’s “younger sister”—Sweetie 2.0. She’ll be monitoring 45,000 chat rooms worldwide where predators look for their next victim. Her mission will be to deter malicious actions, identify offenders, and help authorities to bring charges.
While it is comforting to know that leading researchers, alongside authorities, are working tirelessly to combat child predators online, it’s essential to educate your child about safe online behavior. If kids know of the potential dangers, they’ll be more prepared to self-monitor and avoid risky situations online
Of course, we as parents don’t have our own Sweeties at home, necessarily. But there are practical tools that can make parenting in the digital age a bit easier. The suite of parental control features in ESET Internet Security, for instance, can help you block harmful, explicit, or otherwise inappropriate websites.
Since the launch of the Sweetie program, efforts to combat online sex predators and cyber sex trafficking have increased significantly. Within the United States, programs like the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit and Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program (among others) are out there every day, fighting the good fight. Yet the very need for Sweetie and other programs is a stark reminder to parents that it’s important to keep a close eye on what kids are up to when they go online.