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Every parent should read this
This topic hits me personally, and I don’t like to discuss it at all. You never know who’s a child predator. I was molested by a trusted family friend when I was 6 years old. I told my parents, and they took immediate action — well, not the action my Dad wanted, which was to cut off the guy’s hands.
The predator did the same thing for many years, even after police involvement, and he continued to do so until he died a horrible death from cancer.
Today, these sickos are online and their prey is everywhere. That’s why I wanted to talk to Roo Powell. She was working at a tech company and wanted to expose just how many predators lurk online, looking for kids to target. She and her colleagues created a profile for a fake teenage girl.
“The volume and speed of the abusive messages were staggering,” she told me. It was so much worse than they’d anticipated. Their experiment, though, ended with a federal sex abuse case.
That was five years ago. Powell went on to found the nonprofit SOSA, short for Safe from Online Sex Abuse, and she’s the force behind two seasons of “Undercover Underage,” streaming on Max. SOSA’s work has put at least 70 predators behind bars.
This is such an important topic and one you should be aware of, whether you have kids at home or not.
No parent wants to think their child is a target
But it can happen to any kid from any family, with any economic background, any gender or sexuality. “Kids are targeted just for being kids online,” Roo says.
In one case, she pretended to traffic an 11-year-old online. A man showed up with a McDonald’s Happy Meal and was quickly arrested. Horrifying, I know.
In TV shows and movies, child predators look like monsters. In reality, they could be anyone. “We’ve had high school teachers, medical professionals, a Department of Children and Family Services worker.”
Two things these people have in common? They’re manipulative and practiced. One study says the average perpetrator has 50 to 150 victims in their lifetime. Can you believe that?
The tactics vary
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Social media addiction is real: Every like, share or funny video triggers a dopamine hit. It’s that feel-good chemical your brain loves. But too much scrolling and your brain will produce less dopamine, leaving you craving more screen time just to feel normal. Taking a break can reset those pathways. A few days offline does the trick.
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Someone always thanks me for this shortcut: You probably already use Ctrl/Cmd + V to paste. Try Ctrl + Shift + V on PC or Option + Cmd + Shift + V on Mac to paste text without the formatting.
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