How have chat rooms and online communities transcended the web and landed on prime time television? In four little words, “To Catch a Predator”. Any kid with access to a computer should be forced to watch an episode of this show to give them a real life perspective of the potential dangers that lurk online. For anyone who has never seen “To Catch a Predator”, the premise of the show is about catching sexual predators who chat online about having sex with a decoy posing as an underage teen, then show up to meet at an undercover house. Once the predator enters the house, Chris Hansen reveals himself and proceeds to interview the pedophiles in what can only be described as an embarrassing, pathetic, yet entertaining interrogation.
One of the goals of the show is to urge parents to closely monitor their kid’s online activities. Young teens may be naïve enough to fall victim to this sort of predator, but parents need to be aware and take a proactive approach in educating their children about online sexual predators. “To Catch a Predator” brings to light two very important points associated with web technology. First, as previously discussed, the Internet has become the latest haven for sexual predators. In fact, the web can provide a cover and false identity for predators to hide behind, which makes it more difficult to prevent these types of crimes and catch the offenders. Second, on the more optimistic side, the web provides law enforcement new ways to trap such sexual predators, and lure them into situations, like “To Catch a Predator”, where they can be arrested.
One of the confusing legal-related points of the show involves the actual crimes that are being committed and punished. I say this because although the men are guilty of making perverted comments to (who they perceive as) underage teenagers, they never actually follow through on the criminal act. I believe the majority of the offenders are charged with ‘soliciting sexing from a minor’, which for first-time offenders is only punishable by probation and mandatory registration as a sex offender. Of course, I agree with the ideals that are being enforced on the show, I’m just questioning how effective these prevention techniques are to deter chronic sex offenders from utilize the Internet as their means.
Before the Internet, most of the time it was good enough to tell children, "Don't talk to strangers". But in the web world of toady the line between a "stranger" and "a person whom I'm chatting with online" becomes a little more blurred due to the inherent trust that is assumed. I think Web 2.0 technologies have further blurred the lines with the advent of social networking sites where even more personal information is made freely available. Additionally, most of the time only the positive side of Web 2.0 technologies are publically and readily touted and publicized. It is unfortunately that the necessary precautions are so much harder to learn about.
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