Child Predator Social Experiment

Mechanistic methods of dealing with people aren't fully reliable are they. I hear that rather than send patients for the magic 5 sessions of CBT the government believes to be a cure all, people are now being referred for on line therapy.

The SOTP Sex Offender Treatment Programme teams are depleted and struggling to cope, although not farmed out to private organisations. Interestingly, I see there is an eSOTP online internally, which will rate sex offenders and determine what treatment needs repeating to show effectiveness. I hope it can be overridden clinically by trained practitioners - mechanistic methods of dealing with sex offenders are not fully reliable.

I've watched the you tube link soon. I agree with others who suggest the scenarios are set up, using actors. I found the scenario where the parents wore balaclava's to terrify their child shocking. I hope that actors, rather than real families were used in all the scenarios, but especially in that one.

I agree that awareness amongst parents and children needs to be increased. Thanks to janeainsworth's sil for his responses to the you tube clip. Also to whenim64 for her calm and informative contribution. I wonder what's happening to the kind of teams that whenim64 worked in, given the cuts to probation and other services

True.

I don't think anyone has said that the incidence has decreased, only that it doesn't seem to have increased

Congratulations to your DSil. He is doing a worthwhile job. And thank you for getting his professional view on it, and to him for allowing his view to be posted.

* What a pity that children have less freedom these days because of the perception that they are in constant danger from strangers*

I often wonder though that because children have less freedom, that that is what has made incidences decrease.

Thank you for the post and I agree that that is encouraging whenim64.

That's encouraging When. What a pity that children have less freedom these days because of the perception that they are in constant danger from strangers.

Soon many organisations, including the NHS, use online promotional videos to reach younger people, as they look at YouTube far more than they watch television or read newspapers or even look at advertising billboards.

My DSiL used to produce them and one that he produced for a Primary Care Trust, encouraging young men to go to the dentist, got 6 million hits and won an award.

I forwarded the link to him and asked him as a professional what he thought of this one.
With his permission this is what he said:

I'm not 'down with the kids' enough to know who the guy is, but if the question is do I think it¹s an effective piece of communication then I certainly do: For parents in particular I think its a big wake-up call as to the potential naivety of their children - The third set of parents for example mentioned they'd talked at length with their daughter about the implications of these type of scenarios but she had gone ahead and done it anyway.
I did think grabbing the girl in the van was OTT and unnecessary though and would have been completely terrifying for the girl. The parents should have revealed themselves the split second she got into the van.
I agree with you as a responsible parent the last thing you should do is go ballistic at the child, but in terms of creating an effective and entertaining piece of communication that reaches a wide audience the extreme anger is required as it creates an emotive and therefore memorable response in the audience.

This is what they say at CEOP - Police Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. (I used to assess, treat and manage sex offenders)

'It’s probably a good idea to be even more cautious than usual when trying to interpret the statistics available on this subject.

Long-term statistics for some of the huge numbers of different sexual offences against under-16s on the statute book are available but it’s probably impossible to draw meaningful comparisons over long periods of time because of changes in the way the police record crimes.

What we can say is that there is no evidence that the most serious crimes against children are on the increase. There’s no statistical reason for parents to be more worried now than in previous years.

And in absolute terms, cases of abduction, homicide and serious sexual assault remain, mercifully, very rare.

Graham Hill told us that abduction “is a rare crime, but when it happens it’s a huge event, not only for the people whose lives it affects, but also for the media and the whole community”.

He added: “The reaction is completely skewed. There is a fear of strangers that is not borne out by the statistics." '

I tried to look up how many children go missing each year but couldnt find reliable figures.

I am interested whenim64 how you know that child abductions are not on the rise and that the number of predatory sex offenders is not increasing. [I have forgotten whether you are a social worker or a teacher, but perhaps you know this through your work].

It is only a YouTube video.
It isnt a teaching aid. Not yet.

It could be used as such I guess, in which case, all the things you mention would then come into play.

Sorry, tried to attribute that info but my keys keep sticking and when I tried to amend it, it kept deleting. Got it from a digital safety website.

I agree that pictures can paint 1,000 words, soon but what this exoerimental video doesn't do is explain the process of grooming children online, so that their awareness is raised in the first place. A conversation about how this happens, with ideas coming from the children as well as the adults, can be tailored to each child by adults who know them well. Here's an example of what online predatory groomers get up to, which demonstrates why a video of the eventual meeting is insufficien to educate the child.

A potential victim is picked by sizing up the child’s vulnerability—emotional neediness, isolation and low self-confidence. Children with less parental oversight are more desirable prey.

The groomer gathers personal details about a child online e.g. the child’s age, name, address, mobile number and the school the child attends.
This information is often easily gathered from social networking sites such as a child’s profile on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. The information is also obtained via multi-player games on Xbox, Playstation and WebChat sites.
Many teens share hundreds of photos and videos of themselves on their social media accounts that can be viewed by anyone. They also list links to their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine and Snapchat profiles for anyone to follow and message them.

I understand that whenim64.
But its the old "a picture paints a 1000 words" that springs to mind.
Plus YouTube is modern.
It was actaully my son that sent me the clip.

Just my opinion, but it seems to me that there's something about the internet, whether on the 'puter, smartphone etc, which encourages the natural inclination of teenagers to keep things private, and secret from their parents.
Also too much time spent with gadgets means less time learning how to read social situations etc in real life .
Parents have a hard job these days, I don't envy them.

We all have different learning styles, soon. The visual aids in a school setting will be effective, but children don't sit at the dinner table with adults, looking at a whiteboard or video about internet/social media safety. Conversations with children in their social setting can be initiated whilst normal family life is happening. I'm assuming children are not just being educated about this problem at school, but within their families and between groups of friends.

Conversations are good, but people take notice of visual aids, especially young people.

Schools are now obliged to include the teaching of internet safety in the safeguarding policy. OfSted is very hot on it at inspection time and needs evidence that this is happening.

We shouldn't assume that all young people don't understand the risks of the internet. Most people use sensible precautions in getting to know strangers over time, whether it was penfriends in the 50s like I did, or through social media like online dating or meeting up with other Gransnetters. Most people are shocked by scenarios like those in the video clip, but it doesn't mean they would have been reckless about their own safety. We've talked on Gransnet about inappropriate behaviour from people we met on nights out when we were young, blind dates that turned out to be horrible, office pests and so on. Thinking back to when I was a young teenager, none of my circle of friends would have met up with a virtual stranger on our own. Those times are regarded as relatively permissive compared with the way children are chauffeured and monitored nowadays.

Anything that is a useful conversation starter about safety in making online friendships can only be a good thing, but deliberately frightening children into thinking the worst will happen isn't a healthy way to do it. Why not just have the conversations and suggest what the pitfalls are of not taking sensible precautions? We might learn more from young people than we thought.

Several points.

Whether it is real or not, I think that it is a very useful clip.
It has had 22 million hits so far, so I think it will be passed around.

I am glad to hear that internet safety seems a big feature in schools nowadays.

I never knew online paedophile trappers existed. I too think, if it is done in the right way, then all well and good.

Do you mean POGS, that half of the girls your friend's daughter know, do meet up with boys they have recently "met" online?

To say it is 'put up' gives the impression you can't believe it would/could/did actually happen. Do some GN posters believe that to be the case, interested to know. Or is it simply the way the clip was filmed .

I have shown that clip to my friend this morning and she asked if she could show it to her daughter. Whether it be factual or not she , like myself, was perfectly aware how this does happen. Her daughter is 14 and she too was shocked to see the clip and said she thought it was so scarey and nothing like the way her school handles the subject.

The daughter said at her school they are told of the dangers of the internet , telling them not to be fooled and never meet up with strangers as the internet is an easy place to lie about your age, gender etc. She said they were told about the dangers of 'sexting' but it's done in a way that will not shock them . Her words were half of them giggle because they are embarrassed, the other half already use the internet to meet up , no different to the girls on the clip, or do 'sexting'. Ye Gods her mother nearly dropped to the floor and it was good this had happened because the two of them sat and spoke to each other but I think it will take my friend a while to get over the frankness of their conversation .

The end result was the daughter felt that the clip did actually make her think more and she thought it would be a good thing for her class to see it. She thought that they are old enough to watch it and it was a better way of showing how dangerous the internet can be than anything the school had done. In her words 'We're not kids you know'.

Just read your later post when

Whenim64,that's what I really wanted to hear. I only have little grandchildren , and I wasn't really aware of the word paedophile when my own girls were young, so it's an area I'm not really familiar with. It's reassuring that the problem is addressed at your daughter's school, and therefore hopefully at most schools. Again, this message should be given out at primary school as some of the children in the video were quite young.

Safer Internet campaign is supported by Greater Manchester Police who go into local schools to talk to children, teachers and parents. Presumably across the country, as it's a national campaign.

www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/2015