It is a problem that seems to be only getting worse in many respects.
According to the Herold Sun in a 2012 article: “South Australia Police has emailed a warning to children’s rights advocates that predators are window-shopping on the internet, looking for photographs with so-called “geo-tagging” information to find out where children live, go to school, go to playgrounds or shop with their parents.” See article: Police warn photos of kids with geo-tagging being used by pedophiles.”
Geo-tagging info on photos makes it easy for predators to know about your kids. But parents don’t seem to understand that as more and more kids are posting sexually suggestive and often time provocative pictures of themselves online, using facebook and other social networking sites.
Because young children are involved we are unable to cite specific examples out of the hundreds available on facebook, but let me assure you they are often times sexually suggestive and provocative in nature. Some feature girls as young as 6 and 7 years old, wearing “make up”, lip stick, eye shadow and scantly clothed.
In some instances parents sometimes show case their children on Facebook.
If you are familiar with toddlers and tiaras, many of the younger models are featured on Facebook…often time on accounts set up by their parents? (see: http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/toddlers-tiaras ).
One such child featured on Facebook is Paisley Scott Dickey, a 6 year old girl.
The account was believed to have been set up by her mother www.facebook.com/pages/Paisley-Scott-Dickey/254201184636726?sk=photos#!/… .
On the Facebook page a message is found: Be sure to like my fan page! This is where you can find special contests and edits of me, thanks everyone(-: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Paisley-Scotts-Official-Fanpage/164621730273691?ref=ts
Granted this is an extreme example, but you can see the problem. See also: Is It Okay to Dress a 3-Year-Old in a Prostitute Costume for a Pageant? http://www.andersoncooper.com/2011/10/31/wendy-dickey-defends-pageant-prostitute-costume/
GEOTAGGING AND THE PROBLEM OF “TROLLING” FOR KIDS ONLINE
Geotagging(also written as GeoTagging) is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as a geo-tagged photograph or video, websites, SMS messages, QR Codes or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. These data usually consist of latitude and longitude coordinates, though they can also include altitude, bearing, distance, accuracy data, and place names.
Geotagging can help users find a wide variety of location-specific information. For instance, one can find images taken near a given location by entering latitude and longitude coordinates into a suitable image search engine. Geotagging-enabled information services can also potentially be used to find location-based news, websites, or other resources.
Geotagging can tell users the location of the content of a given picture or other media or the point of view, and conversely on some media platforms show media relevant to a given location.
The related term “geocoding” refers to the process of taking non-coordinate based geographical identifiers, such as a street address, and finding associated geographic coordinates (or vice versa for reverse geocoding). Such techniques can be used together with geotagging to provide alternative search techniques.
Geo-tagging may seem an innocent way for parents to add information to photographs – but should also be considered dangerous in some instances, as it is making kids vulnerable to being targeted by sexual predatorsonline.
University of South Australia child protection expert Professor Freda Briggs forwarded the emailed warning to The Advertiser when contacted by the officers advising of what they called the “scary” trend, which began in the United States.
“Predators are always one jump ahead and it is very difficult to get safety messages over to young people and the community in general,” Professor Briggs said in the article.
This is seen as a huge problem in the United States.
Those familiar with the show “To catch a Predator” with Chris Hanssen to get an idea of how huge this problem is (See: To Catch A Predator- Top Ten- Part 1 of 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGmRJjZr9GU&feature=related
Sadly many police department in the US, especially in more rural areas refuse to warn parents of the dangers.
In some parts of rural Kansas for example police websites are woefully inadequate in providing information to reduce crime or address threat to children online. In some cases, you get no real information which could warn people of crime trends in a particular community.
Some cite a lack of resources, but others say it is just a non issue for many police and sheriff offices in the US, which are leaving people vulnerable in many cases. Sex predators use a variety of techniques online to get information on your children, including such things as “pre-texting” and other means usually associated with intelligence gathering and espionage .
According to Facebook, users must be 13 years or older, but a recent survey reveals people using Facebook are often younger than that in many cases. Parents could be ignorant of their children using Facebook or other online sites…This however is no excuse for allowing children unrestricted access to computers and smart phones.
Parents need to be extra careful where their children are concerned.