What you can do
Trust yourself
Your gut instincts are your best guide to knowing when a situation is getting dangerous. Just like on the street. Follow those instincts when you meet someone who you think fits the pervert profile. If it sounds and feels off, it probably is.
Think about the profile of a pervert when you’re talking to someone in a chat room or IM, or listening to your friends tell you about their Internet relationships.
Pretending is a big thing on chat rooms and IM. So make sure your antenna is up and active.
| Pretending stats
More than 5 in 10 youth say they have pretended to be a different age on the Internet; and 5 in 10 pretend to look different than they do or that they have a different personality; 4 in 10 say they can do things on the Internet they’d never do in real life, including wild and crazy things.
Think before you do anything wild and crazy on the Internet. You’re probably not performing for who you think you are. |
Spread the word
Talking about what you know about cyber perverts to your friends, brothers and sisters will help everyone understand what they’re up against. And what they can do to not become a pervert’s victim.
When you’re swapping stories, listen for specific MO strategies the perverts use, like:
- asking if parents are monitoring conversations;
- suggesting that they go to a private chat room to talk;
- offering gifts; or
- asking sexual or other personal questions.
Use these as cues to get out of the conversation.
What a chat string with a pervert looks like
From an actual chat with a 13 year old girl
Session Start
Man 27: hey sexy… what’s up
C?UEE:on the phone wiff erica
Man 27: cool
Man 27: go on cam hun?
C?UEE:Mhmm
Man 27: please hun
Man 27 has accepted your invitation to start webcam conversation.
The webcam conversation has ended. The man can no longer see you.
Man 27: go back on hun
Man 27: youa re sexy….what are you wearinf hun
Man 27: can I see…. |
Talk to your parents, teachers and other adults about what you know. What you’ve experienced on the Internet. The more people that know about cyber perverts, the harder it is for them to operate. And the easier it is for the police to throw the predators in jail.
Keep out the pervert
| What-were-they-thinking stats
- 2 in 5 youth say a stranger on the Internet asked for personal information such as a photo, phone number, street address or school.
- 1 in 2 of those who were asked for personal information, gave all or some of the information requested.
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The rule is NEVER give out private identity information on the Internet. That includes:
- Full (first and last) name
- Address
- Name of school
- E-mail address
- Phone number
- Passwords
- Social insurance number
- Mother’s maiden name
- Your parent’s place of work
It’s a bad idea to send photographs over the Internet no matter what. Once you press Send, you don’t know what’s going to happen to those photos. Having read the MO of a pervert, you know what they’re going to do with them. And it’s not pretty.
It’s a bad idea to post photos of yourself and your friends on a website.
A good idea if you’re sending photos to a friend of relative, is to always get confirmation that they’ve received the email to tell people not to forward photos.
It’s a bad idea to have a web camera conversation with someone you’ve only met online. If you do, you’ve just invited a pervert into your house. Now, that’s creepy.
Bad idea: accepting gifts from someone you’ve met on the Internet. That plays into the predator’s MO of making you feel like you owe them something.
Don’t meet the pervert
| Bad idea stats
- 1 in 4 youth say someone they met online asked to meet them in person.
- 1 in 7 youth say they have met in person with someone they knew only online.
- 1 in 8 of the youth who met in person with Internet strangers described the meeting as “a bad experience.”
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We STRONGLY advise against having face-to-face meetings with people you meet on the Internet. You risk getting yourself into a dangerous or at least, a bad situation.
Above all NEVER have a private face-to-face meeting with someone you’ve met online.
If you insist on meeting an online acquaintance, go somewhere public, like a restaurant. Bring a friend along, preferably an adult. Make sure to let someone know what you’re doing, where you’re going and when to expect you back.
Pervert Alert
If you suspect that a pervert is targeting you or a friend
Shut down the program you are using. If you go back onto the chat room or IM, re-register with a new user ID. And use the Ignore button to screen out conversations with people you don’t want to talk to.
Definitely do not to accept gifts. That compromises you and plays into the predator’s strategy of making you feel like you owe them something.
Don’t make contact with the pervert. That fuels the fire of the relationship and might interfere with a police investigation.
Even though we want to bring the pervert down, baiting them could put you in serious danger. Definitely not recommended.
Report your suspicions to an adult you trust, like a parent, friend, teacher or police officer.
Send in a report to http://www.cybertip.ca. People there monitor and assess all of the reports sent to them. If something criminal has happened (see The Law), they’ll send the repot to a law enforcement agency.
Police services are busy investigating cyber crimes of all kinds. If you believe you or some one else is a victim of a cyber crime (see The Law):
Don’t delete information from the computer archives, including images on video cams and cameras. Police need this kind of information to use as evidence against the criminals.
Contact your local police department.
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