Nobrainer’s Think Tank

About 20 months ago I posted my thoughts. on NBC’s To Catch a Predator series. Specifically, I opined:

• I find the “consultants” who spent long hours pretending to be teens in search of sex thoroughly frightening
• The problem isn’t so much the predators
• The problem is that some teenagers are actively looking for sex on the internet
• If the teenagers are looking for sex on the internet, they’re probably looking for it elsewhere, too
• Since the predators are sometimes driving hundreds of miles, it seems the real, actual opportunity to score with an adolescent is actually extremely scarce

Well, now the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire in Durham has released a study. They find, amongst other things:

• Sex assaults on teens fell 52 percent from 1993 to 2005, according to the Justice Department’s National Crime Victimization Survey, the best measure of U.S. crime trends. “The Internet may not be as risky as a lot of other things that parents do without concern, such as driving kids to the mall and leaving them there for two hours,” Wolak said.
• Internet predators don’t hit on the prepubescent children whom pedophiles target. They target adolescents, who have more access to computers, more privacy and more interest in sex and romance
• The means of communication is new, according to Wolak, but most Internet-linked offenses are essentially statutory rape: nonforcible sex crimes against minors too young to consent to sexual relationships with adults.
• Most victims meet online offenders face-to-face and go to those meetings expecting to engage in sex. Nearly three-quarters have sex with partners they met on the Internet more than once.
• Only 5 percent of predators [meet their victims by posing online as other teens], according to the survey of investigators.

I’m so glad we have the hard hitting investigative journalists at NBC making things clear for us.