Sexual Encounters

The internet isn't just a topic of interest for the common man, but researches and analysists as well. A recent study by three Doctors, Kimberly J. Mitchell Ph.D., Janis Wolak J.D., and David Finkelhor Ph.D., was over the dangers of the internet in terms of sexual exploitations/solicitations, harassment and other unwanted sexual contact for youth while on the internet.

I found this scholarly article by searching through various articles over the dangers of the internet on Google Scholar, and after I verified that it was an actual study by at least one doctor and had all the required parts in the article, I deemed it suitable.

The main point was that they wanted to track the trends from 2000 to 2005 of sexual solicitations and unwanted porn that were being exposed to youth on the internet. They found that although the internet is in fact developing more and more every day since it came into existence, and more and more is being added to its vast amount of information, there is actually a decline in the amount of sexual solicitations on the internet by youth overall, especially with boys and girls of all ages and of non-Hispanic culture and wealthy homes, but there is no significant decrease for less wealthy households and minorities.

From these results, they concluded that the decrease in white, richer homes was due to there being more education available in schools and at home for these children on how to be safe while on the internet and what can happen, resulting in them being more careful with what they do, and from this there needs to be increased efforts for minorities and less wealthy youth to teach them how to avoid the dangers of the internet and how to make safe choices with what they do while online.

This article definitely drives home how the internet has changed over the years since it first came into existence, and although more intense and harmful things are being put on the internet for our children to get into, children are also more aware of these facts at a younger age and how exactly they should go about reacting to these situations. The fact of the matter is is that these children were born into these dangers and already know how to deal with them better than some of the adults of today do.