Tag Archives: online predators

July 31, 2022 · 1:00 am

Internet Safety Tips for Teens

File:Social media.jpg

Typical social media sites, Source Flickr, Author Automotive Social
(CC BY 2.0 Generic)

The following safety tips were supplied by a child advocacy center all too familiar with child abuse in its many forms.  Please, discuss them with the teens in your life.

Personal Safety 

Never share your personal information with others online unless you already know them offline, and they have good reason for needing to know.

Before sharing the following information with ANYONE, always check with a trusted adult first:  last name, address, phone number, date of birth, school name, social security number, passwords.

Social Media

Many social networking websites (e.g. Facebook/Meta, Twitter, and Instagram) have minimum age requirements for signing up.  These requirements are there to protect you!  Never accept a “friend request” from someone you do not already know offline.  Again, never share personal information with others. Continue reading →

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May 9, 2021 · 1:00 am

Selfie Shame

File:Sabonete Dove.jpg

Dove soap bar, Author Felipe Micaroni Lalli (Dove.jpg micaroni@gmail.com) (CC BY-SA 2.5 Generic)

Dove soap, a Unilever brand, has launched a campaign in Canada to highlight the extent to which social media harms the self-esteem of pre-teen girls [1A][2A].

The campaign derives from a survey which showed that 80% of young girls already by the age of 13 use photo editing filters or apps to improve their image before posting a “selfie” online [1B].

Instructions in Parenting

The soap company urges parents to “have the selfie talk” with their children, and explain how image manipulation creates unrealistic beauty standards [1C][2B].

How low have we sunk when a soap company must instruct us  in parenting?  And how likely is it that our children will do as we say, rather than as we, ourselves, do? Continue reading →

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March 26, 2017 · 1:00 am

Semper Fi

US Marine Corps Emblem, Author Institute of Heraldry (PD)

  • As of 2011, there were 203,000 women on active duty in the military; another 129,960 in the National Guard and Reserve [1A].
  • Men and women in the Marine Corps must meet the same standards for combat jobs [2].
  • Though the vast majority of casualties have been men, at least 33 women have been killed in action in Afghanistan and 66 in Iraq. Over 900 women have been wounded in combat [1B].

The Marine Corps has admitted to Congress it is at a loss how to protect female Marines against social media predators [3].

Secretive groups like Marines United and Just the Tip of the Spear have obtained and shared nude photos of female Marines and recruits online [4A].  Other branches of the service are not immune [7].  Hundreds of women are known to have been victimized.

Diminishing Women

This is a way of diminishing women.  Some argue there a culture of misogyny in the Marines.

A Slow Response

Marine veteran and Purple Heart recipient, Thomas Brennan, who runs the nonprofit news organization The War Horse, first drew attention to the problem in January of this year [4B].

The approach by the Marine Corps has been slow, deliberate, and outdated.  Meanwhile, Marines United (which claims some 30,000 members) has repeatedly traded one Facebook page for another.

Continue reading →

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