The Internet is one of society’s greatest innovations, yet horrifyingly one of our greatest vices. While the Internet connects us with knowledge and information, it also can also connect online predators with susceptible victims. The Internet can connect children with harmful and inappropriate content before they are ready to consume it. Social media especially increases exposure to mis- and disinformation. In today’s world, we must learn how to navigate the Internet to keep ourselves and our youth safe from danger.

Nowadays, predators no longer need to lurk in playgrounds and shopping malls to find their victims. Why would they waste their time when all they need now is Internet access? Internet predators are skilled at manipulating their young victims into believing they have found a friend, when in reality, these children have found their captors, abusers, and killers. Predators will create fake social media accounts to befriend their victims so they can steal private information from them. At just 13-years old, Alicia “Kozak” Kozakiewicz became the first widely reported Internet-related child abduction victim when she was kidnapped on January 1st, 2002. On this day, unbeknownst to her parents, Alicia was planning to meet a friend. For six months, she had been chatting with a boy who she believed to be her age. Unfortunately, she had unknowingly been communicating with a monster. When Alicia left her family dinner and walked outside to meet her “friend,” she soon found herself in a car with a 38-year-old pedophile named Scott Tyree.

For the next four days, Alicia was raped, beaten, and tortured with electric shocks. Her abductor even used the Internet to live stream his vicious attacks on Alicia, so there were actually other pedophiles watching what was happening to Alicia. Thankfully, Alicia was miraculously rescued by the FBI when one of the pedophiles watching Tyree’s livestream recognized Alicia from her missing persons poster, realized that he could get in trouble because Tyree had previously told him about his plans to kidnap a young girl, and he anonymously reported the livestream to the FBI fearing legal repercussions. Although Alicia was rescued and given a second chance at life, not every child taken by an Internet predator makes it back alive. When Alicia was kidnapped in 2002, she had given Tyree her address because he had gained her trust. But in 2022, predators do not even have to ask their victims for their addresses. New social media services like Snap maps allow their users exact locations and how long ago they were at that place to be viewed by all of their social media “friends.” These services, which make it easier for kidnappers to find their victims, are being used by large percentages of teenagers. According to The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 75% of American teens aged 13-17 use Snapchat. The high number of teens using these social media platforms is dangerous for our youth and advantageous for the predators among us.

The Internet also facilitates the consumption of harmful and inappropriate content to children. The web allows kids to access social networking sites, information, movies & television, and other helpful media. However, the Internet is also home to content which is violent, pornographic, and/or offensive in nature. Some social media sites like Instagram work as diligently as they can to remove this type of media, however, some content inevitably slips through the cracks and reaches the eyes of young viewers. The problem is exacerbated on apps like Twitter, which does not remove inappropriate content, and general search engines, where absolutely anything can be found. Kids are impressionable and can be influenced by inappropriate content. Children can see language which is racist, sexist, or otherwise vulgar and begin using it in their own conversations. In rare cases, kids who see graphic violent and sexual content while they are young eventually carry out these actions in adulthood which leads to innocent people being hurt. The Internet also provides access to content which is harmful in other ways, such as content which promotes eating disorders & disordered behaviors. On Twitter, for example, there is an entire community dedicated to sharing “motivation” to keep its members encompassed in their disorders. And sadly, the demographic of this community is predominantly teenaged girls. Called “pro-ana” and “pro-mia” (to promote anorexia & bulimia, respectively), the content includes diet plans suggesting dangerously low calorie intakes, guides explaining how to fast unhealthily, and pictures of thin girls to serve as “inspiration.” Eating disorders are dangerous at any age, but the teenage years are when you go though puberty and your body needs food and nutrients more than ever. Eating disorders at this age can permanently damage a teen’s metabolism and the effects can last well into adulthood. It is scary that the Internet can allow young people to access harmful content with just the click of a button.

The Internet increases access to misinformation and disinformation, and youth without media literacy skills are left susceptible to believing false information. Social media has introduced kids to politics and social justice issues earlier than ever before. In many aspects, it is wonderful that kids are able to form viewpoints and stay informed on important topics. However, in an age where false information is so prevalent online, it can be disastrous when young people try to educate themselves with news that is simply not true. Social media apps like Instagram have attempted to flag information which is unverified or untrue, but similar to inappropriate content, not everything can be caught. Misinformation reaching children is so harmful because many of the beliefs we form in our youth are sustained in adulthood. If people are forming uninformed beliefs as kids, we risk having a large population of misinformed adults in the future, which could be disastrous when these individuals begin making important social and political decisions.

Although the Internet has these harmful aspects, education can allow us to navigate the web much safer. Children need to be taught that they cannot trust everyone they meet online, and that they should never disclose their personal information to a stranger over the Internet. Also, if parents allow their kids to use social media platforms, they should ensure that their location cannot be accessed by strangers. As for inappropriate content, parents should try to block certain websites from being accessed by their children or monitor their Internet access. Finally, parents should teach their kids media literacy skills and make sure their kids are finding their news from reliable sources.