Padded push ups for seven year olds, sexting in middle school. Unfortunately childhood no longer equals innocence and the experts say technology is playing a role in the issue putting children in danger. This week, the National Children's Advocacy Center is hosting its annual child abuse symposium. Experts are sharing the latest information on how children are being harmed and what parents and professionals can do to keep them safe.
Raenell Vaughn is attending the symposium for professional and personal reasons. Her daughter was victimized through the use of technology.
“They had superimposed her picture on a naked body and put together a fake facebook and it went viral,” said Vaughn.
Former detective Richard Love's workshop is about child sexual exploitation via media and technology. He says on social networking sites, pedophiles pretend to be children or teens to get close to kids. He says parents have to ask their children to see all their social networking accounts.
“Make sure you ask them to show you the other account too. Chances are the child's going to have the account they're going to show their parents and then another account they're using to talk to their friends with,” said Love.
Love says parents also need to know many kids are sexting. To prevent this, he says to take the cell phone up every night and request the detailed text records along with the bill. Also advertising has been criticized recently for trying to sell racy clothing items to children. There are padded pushup swimsuit tops at Abercrombie & Fitch targeted for girls as young as 7! Disney's also faced scrutiny for a child star's clothing line.
“When you have this young child being portrayed as a sensual sex object what are the messages that we are sending to our young women out young girls,” said Vaughn.
“The sexualization of children is moving to a younger and younger age,” said Richard Love.
Love says even though some clothes may be in style the outfits may catch a predator's eye.
“We're making them more eager to act on that when start to sexualize the younger generation today and put them out there in more provocative garments,” said Love.
According to Love there were 10 internet crimes against children task forces in 1998. They made 150 arrests. Today there are 61 task forces that make up more than 1800 arrests a year. Love says parents still have to communicate with their children and know what they are doing online and on their cell phones.
