How Much Is Too Much Information

P1. The Internet is becoming a dangerous place for teenagers and young adults whose online profiles attract sexual predators. The U.S Department of Justice has joined with nonprofit groups to promote public service campaigns to warn those using Facebook that personal information posted online can lead to abductions and sexual abuse. Facebook has allowed sexual predators to attract victims from the comfort of their homes. Predators are able to learn about their victims solely from their posts on their profile: they learn about their likes or dislike, personality traits, and day to day routines. Predators have websites of their own to talk anonymously to one another on different ways to attract victims and where and who are the easiest targets. It is extremely important for teenagers and young adults to pay close attention to what they are sharing online and who they are sharing it with.

P2. According to the Journal of Adolescent Research the news is filled with stories of the dangers that exist for teenagers and young adults today. From the risks of drugs, alcohol, and risky sexual behavior, we now add the dangers the internet brings: predators, lurkers, and access to inappropriate information. Young girls are blindly posting personal information about their daily routines and their identities, setting themselves up for disaster. They are single handily giving predators everything they need to know to gravitate towards them, making them easy targets. Despite all the dangers, online communication is used by almost 2.1 billon users worldwide causing the young generation to spend most of their time indoors and in front of their electronic devices instead of outside and being active.

P3. Today’s generation has had the privilege of growing up with the latest technology which allows them to learn how to use most electronic devices before adults and parents can figure it out. This experience has allowed today’s generation to become so comfortable with posting personal information online thinking that they cannot be touched because they are behind a screen. Teens feel an element of control and invincibility by sharing personal information they have chosen to share. They are so caught up with the feeling of control and popularity they find online instead of the real world that they allow anyone to befriend them through social media. “52 percent of online teens say they have had an experience online that made them feel good about themselves.” Not realizing who they are allowing to follow them they are exposing themselves to the dangers of sexual predators accessing their personal information. Facebook does not provide enough security and privacy settings that will completely block predators from viewing their profile page.

P4. Teenagers tend to have the most Facebook “friends” compared to adults. According to the article “The Dangers of Facebook” the average Facebook user has 135 friends, each of those friends has average of 135 friends as well. Most teenagers and young adults don’t realize that sharing posts with your “friends” is not safe because it exposes all your posts to tens of thousands of strangers. The average Facebook user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events says “Eye Guardian”. Facebook accounts should be monitored by parents because your child’s protection and well-being is at stake. A parent’s job is to protect their child and do everything they can to prevent them from harm. It is extremely important for a parent to maintain active in their child’s lives online and in the real world.

P5. The U.S Supreme Court considers whether social media is a privilege or a right in modern society. North Carolina is one of five states where convicted sex offenders are not permitted to use social networking sites. And in the article “Do Sex Offenders Have A Free Speech Right To Use Facebook” by Allee Manning, Lester Packingham Jr. did just that he simply posted about a traffic ticket dismissal to warrant his arrest. He violated North Carolina’s law of protection of past and potential victims. Social media sites are an access point for those targeting teenagers and many as four percent of youths aged 10-15 have received unwanted sexual claims according to a 2008 survey. Almost everyone is on Facebook that it has become second nature to having internet access. This meaning that a majority of criminals are signed up as well. Jam Kotenko talks about the scary reality that most sex offenders count on that Facebook can not control you joins. According to a report, the number of sexual assault cases has reached a high in only four years since 2009 reports have increased form 139 to 164. Half of the cases involved victims under the age of 16 according to Jam Kotenko article “Scary Statistics Show that Sex Offenders are Taking Over Social Media.”

Work Cited

Manning, Allee. “Is Using Facebook A Free Speech Right? Supreme Court Weighs Case.” Vocativ. Vocativ, 01 Mar. 2017. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

Kotenko, Jam. “Scary Statistics Show That Sex Offenders Are Taking over Social Media.” Digital Trends. N.p., 02 Apr. 2013. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

Writer, Leaf Group. “Dangers of MySpace and Facebook With Sexual Predators.” Our Everyday Life. Our Everyday Life, 16 Feb. 2013. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

“The mass media and American adolescents’ health“. Brown, Jane D et al. Journal of Adolescent Health , Volume 31 , Issue 6 , 153 – 170