S640 Blog Posting #8

S640 Blog Posting #8 Maywin Jackson

I chose a study’s literature review titled: “Online Threats to Youth” conducted by a Harvard Law Research group in Solicitation, Harassment, and Problematic Content.
The URL above is the actual article I read and the URL below is the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. The Berkman Center website below is the conduit for both the article above and other pertinent research findings and materials. At this site you will find that the Research Advisory of the Internet Safety Technical Taskforce is made up of many scholars and researchers who have an interest in child safety and the internet. Such topics studied are:
Teens Online: Stranger Contact and Cyberbullying
Youth and Law Enforcement Surveys
Social Networking Sites,
Unwanted Sexual Solicitation, Internet Harassment.
Panel Discussion Session
Youth Exposure to Pornography and Violent Web Sites
Online Abuse and Crime by Youth
Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies.
You can find these at the Berkman Center site: Some of the study findings are:
· teenagers are more at risk for online solicitation
· online harassment seems to happen more to mid-adolescent youths from ages 13-14.
· girls are more likely to be solicited and harassed than boys
· A real eye opener for me was that many of the online threats directed toward youths, including sexual solicitation are committed by peers.
I also learned some new terminology such as:
· Sexual attraction to adolescents is called hebephilia
· 95% of sexual assault cases (that are reported) are committed by family members. Wow.
· Online adult solicitations are very scary because they are looking for young people they can groom to help them solicit others.
One outcome of this study gives us some hope in that they have discovered youth internet relationships are mostly friendship oriented.
One thing I liked about this particular study and the website is that they also accept information from other countries.
Cyberbullying and Cyberstalking are especially distressing because those who do the bullying and stalking use IM, e-mail, social networks, in order to bombard their victims with more than one attack.
I guess people can behave just as badly on the internet as they can anywhere else. However, I think both the access they have to others and the anonymity of the internet encourages these people to continue to do what they do; and many times in the comfort of their homes.