(TheConservativeTimes.org) – Experts and parents both have spoken out about the connection between social media and sexual abuse among minors.
Experts have said that the more children use the internet, the more opportunities these predators have to groom and abuse children. According to a statistic, one in five children will experience sexual abuse before they turn eighteen. Another statistic showed that over fifty per cent of children said that the internet predator was someone that they knew.
“The porn that’s being consumed nowadays is significantly more violent in nature. It’s also largely driven by video, which just by nature of the medium is more graphic and more intense,” said Chris Yadon, managing director of Saprea, an advocacy group.
Experts spoke on the fact that children are victimizing other children and that the type of pornography they are watching could be teaching them this behavior.
Yadon said that sextortion is actually the fastest-growing type of sexual abuse among children. This is the act of blackmailing someone with sexual content in order to get money, sexual favors, or more explicit content, among other things.
He continued to say that parents need to learn what kind of things they can do to reduce the risk of their child going through something like this. He also said that it’s important to leave communication open between you and your child so that they feel comfortable talking to you about anything.
This is a growing concern as children are coming into the digital world in full swing with social media profiles. We’ve already seen some changes with technology companies such as Meta stating that anyone under a certain age couldn’t make a social media profile.
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