Today I found an article which highlights some of the scary dangers surrounding social networks. It has been discovered that gangs of child abusers have been using Facebook and other social networks to target children. The article quotes that the predators "trawl through 'menus' of potential victims and plan sickening sex parties.". The article even starts how it is now rare for any abuse case to not involve technology of some kind such as mobile phones.
Facebook provides the perfect set up for these predators in that you can be whoever you want to be in the virtual world. When setting up a profile you can choose anything you like, setting up a fake account is simple and easy. This helps child abusers gain access to children, they can pretend to be one themselves in order to get closer to their victim.
This was another aspect of social networking that I had considered covering myself because of the seriousness of the issue. However after I read the story of Amanda I decided to focus on cyber-bullying instead. I do still find it fascinating how something as vast and powerful as the internet can be so dark and dangerous in many different ways.
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