Digital safety experts say the threat posed by online predators targeting children is only growing with the advent of artificial intelligence.
As smartphones become more powerful and faster, social media use has exploded, but so have the risks of addiction, overuse, and threats from online predators.
“Many victims, including minors, are unaware that their images are being copied, manipulated and circulated.”
Blaze Media spoke to digital safety expert Yaron Litwin about the deadly threats posed to children by online predators.
Litwin outlined three types of threats parents should be aware of when giving their children access to smartphones and social media.
“There are a lot of potential threats online, but we look at three things: the amount of time kids are spending on screens, the type of content they might be viewing and who is on the other side of the screen,” Litwin said.
“First of all, this is all addictive and it’s all about brain chemicals. People are not really in control of these interactions, this is all dopamine-induced activity. That’s why social media, scrolling, all the platforms are spending millions of dollars to develop these highly sophisticated, highly addictive platforms,” he explained.
“On a macro level, the danger has to do with kids’ mental health. Teen depression, child depression is at an all-time high, and there’s a lot of great research pointing to social media as the cause of all of this,” Litwin added. “But I would say it’s a combination of social media, the amount of time kids are spending on their phones, and, worst of all, often these predators.”
Litwin described the most extreme type of sextortion, where scammers use fabricated images to trick children into sending them obscene images or videos, or simply ask for money.
“There are all kinds of different cases, there are cases of cyberbullying, there are cases of sextortion, there are a lot of kids who have committed suicide because they were bribed through sextortion or received images that were not real. So there are really a range of issues, but it all comes down to an overall mental health issue,” he continued.
“I’ve had a number of calls and messages from friends informing me that these nude images are circulating.”
While some parents warn their children never to send explicit images of themselves online, not all are aware of the dangers of posting even the most innocuous images on social media.
of FBI warns Regarding last year’s bad behavior:
Bad actors use content manipulation techniques and services to exploit photos and videos (usually found on personal social media accounts, the open internet, or requested by the victim) and manipulate them into sexually themed images that resemble the victim and distribute them on social media, public forums, or pornographic websites. Many victims, including minors, are unaware that their images have been copied, manipulated, and distributed until someone points it out to them. The photos are then either sent directly to the victim by bad actors for sextortion and harassment, or the victim finds them themselves online. Once distributed, victims can have a very hard time preventing the manipulated content from continuing to be shared or removed from the internet.
In one brutal incident, a 14-year-old girl from Texas Humiliated She posted a photo of herself fully clothed on Instagram, and a male classmate used it to create a fake image.
Elliston Berry told Fox Business her life changed after she saw the images being shared on social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram.
“I’ve been getting a lot of calls and messages from friends saying these nude images are circulating,” she said.
Her mother recalled the fear she felt.
“She came in and showed me the pictures. I was embarrassed and shocked as a mother. I couldn’t protect my daughter,” Anna McAdams said.
“Those signs are often very hard to identify and spot.”
While Berry did the right thing and told her mother straight away, others who are targets of sextortion scams feel embarrassed to come forward and end up getting caught up in it. Litwin offered advice on how parents can talk to their kids to avoid these online scams:
“A lot of risky behaviors are very hard to spot. It’s really hard to spot the red flags. With all the cases we hear about and that make it into the news, parents are always shocked,” he said.
“And really communicating with your kids and having an open conversation and explaining that if they see something, there’s a safe place for them to talk to you,” Litwin added. “And feel comfortable having those conversations and sharing what they’re seeing and what their friends are sharing.”
He also said parents should be aware of common signs of harm caused by their children’s use of smartphones and social media.
“If you see your child hunched over their phone, losing their appetite or lacking motivation to do the things they used to enjoy, that’s definitely a sign parents should take notice,” he said.
“If they just want to stay in bed, they’re going to use that as an excuse to keep using their phone,” Litwin continued. “The problem is, when it gets a little more serious, those signs become a lot harder to identify and spot.”
One report found that 30% of teens who regularly use the internet admitted to being sexually solicited online, but only 25% of them told their parents about the incident.
“There’s a lot of pressure from the community and society… You don’t want your child to be left behind.”
Litwin said studies have shown an increase in teens experiencing mental health problems. “This typically begins at the age when they first get a cell phone and continues into early adulthood.”
For many parents, it’s difficult to limit their children’s digital use once they’ve grown accustomed to being online all the time, and some schools and communities aren’t helping with that effort.
“There’s a lot of community and societal pressure. If there are a certain number of kids in the classroom with cell phones, you don’t want your child to be left behind,” he said. “I think it varies a lot by community. The general guideline is the later the better, but generally you don’t want kids to have smartphones before they’re 8 or 9 years old.”
He also said parents needed to consider what steps they could take to protect their children from online harm.
“For parents, sometimes it’s just about the convenience of connecting with their kids, but at the end of the day, it’s about how parents have control over it,” Litwin added. “It’s like buying a helmet when you buy your first bike. Buying your first cell phone is super exciting, but it should come with a checklist of how parents lay down the ground rules.”
While there are technologies to help parents, Litwin said the most important thing parents can do is open up lines of communication with their children and make them aware of the risks in the digital world.
“The risks vary at different ages, but it’s definitely something that needs to be communicated and discussed within families, and technology will need to help with screen time, location, filtering, etc.”
One technology tool parents can use is Canopy, App A service that uses AI and machine learning to help families block inappropriate content. Litwin is the chief marketing officer of a service that helps parents create a “tailored internet experience” to minimize online harm.
“Parents feel powerless and don’t realize that there are actually tools they can use to help them navigate this digital age,” he said.
“We’re seeing more and more of a trend of a desire to move away from that.”
Litwin cited detoxing as another tactic young people are using to combat digital harm.
“We are seeing a growing trend of self-harm among young people and adults,” he added.
“I think what’s happening is people are really figuring out how much time they’re spending on their phones, and how it’s taking away people’s social life and just aimlessly scrolling through Instagram and TikTok and YouTube,” Litwin continued. “So there’s more and more of a desire to get away from your phone.”
He said Canopy can help with this effort by restricting access to certain harmful apps.
“It’s so addictive that people need to take their phone away from them or force themselves to turn it off. We recognize the need for screen time management, but this is different from past examples of simply limiting time, this is blocking specific apps,” Litwin explained.
“It’s hard to talk to teenagers about detox because you don’t want to miss out and you want to know what’s going on every second,” he added, “but we’re seeing young people trying to get out of this.”
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