University of New Hampshire Study on Online Predators

The University of New Hampshire release a study that calls into question many of the perceptions of how online predators behave while using sites like MySpace or FaceBook.

The study can be found at:

http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/amp632111.pdf

A couple of notes from the study are:

• Internet offenders pretended to be teenagers in only 5 percent of the crimes studied by researchers.
• Nearly 75 percent of victims who met offenders face-to-face did so more than once.
• Online sex offenders are seldom violent, and cases involving stalking or abduction are very rare.

The study does not dismiss the concerns that we all have about these types of sites, but works to help us better understand the risks.

James