The Predators of Social Media

         People believe that they are safe on Social Media and have nothing to worry about. Although Social Media is indeed not safe, this is due to predators that lurk around Social Media. Predators are one of the most feared hazards of Social Media, they can gather information just by looking at others accounts, they track and abduct victims based on others posts on Social Media. These people use a wide variety of different methods to abduct victims and this issue remains one of the most hazardous and if not fatal.

Predators are a common hazard on Social Media, with new technology and applications. This has made it easier for predators as they no longer have to use physical means. Most predators use fake accounts to blend with other teens and children. CBS17 did an article on predators in Social Media and states "Predators populate social media pages with pictures of teenagers they are representing as themselves" (CBS17 Para. 8). This causes children to mistaken them for other teens,  effectively allowing predators to get closer to their victims. Predators often build up a relationship with their victim and connect with them. 

In most cases this is how abductions occur, predators lure children to a location by "Asking them to meet them somewhere". Predators can tell where their victim will be just by looking at their Social Media posts. More often than not, people post where they are, what they are doing, where they will be the next day and even their personal information. This leads to abductions and it can be fatal, NWFDailyNews tells a shocking story of an abduction that started on Social Media and with it ending fatal, stating "The would-be sixth-grader was missing for five days before her body was found Monday. An Alabama man who is a registered sex offender has been arrested and charged with kidnapping, homicide and disposing of her body" (NWFDailyNews Para. 1). This shows the effect of predators online and what they are indeed capable of.

The many causes are what make predators dangerous, they are able to lurk around undetected and take others. With so many horrible outcomes, it is important to educate others on the subject to make them safer. Predators are everywhere, although it is not easy to spot one at first glance, people must be weary online, being vigilant and safe.

Is Social Media Truly Safe?

When we put something on Social Media is it really gone, are we really safe on social media? Most people do not exercise caution or safety on Social Media thus, people fall victim to predators and information leaks. a question ever been raised when you search through other peoples profiles on Social Media apps? Most people will ask "Why is he posting his location, does he want people to find him or something?" Most people do not realize it when their parents tell them "What you put on the internet, stays on the internet".

But what is Social Media, Social media is defined as websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. Some of the most common are, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, with the list going on. Most people are not aware of what they post on Social Media and sometimes it can lead to bad outcomes. For example, someone posting their location of a store or where a person is at lets people know where you are. Predators now a days use social media to track their victims. Smart social, a newsletter site explains "According to a recent study from Kids Live Safe, more than 82% of online sex crimes originate from social networking sites that predators use to gain insight into their victim’s habits and likes." (Smart Social Para. 1). 

People also need to take into consideration that things they post on Social Media does not go away. Pressing the delete button may give the illusion that the text is gone, but in reality it is still there. Most programs have a type of storage unit that stores data from the persons account, this allows the company to see what you post as well as giving government agency's the ability to pull posts from accounts. Menshealth explains that twitter never deletes your tweets, "Twitter doesn’t comment on what it does when you delete a Tweet, but says that “search engines and other third parties may still retain copies of your public information, like your user profile information and public Tweets, even after you have deleted the information from the Twitter Services or deactivated your account.” (MensHealth Para. 6). As scary as it sounds it is all completely true, that is why many parents and agency's advise people to watch what they post on Social Media.

With this, Social Media is truly a cautious place where anything could happen. As most people do not exercise caution or safety on Social Media, they fall victim to predators and even information leaks. People need to be educated on this, doing this will make Social Media safer and give people better ways to keep themselves safe.