The Awareness Advisor

At the Portales News-Tribune, staff writer Paula Cronic details how it is that young teens are the best targets for Internet predators prowling social networking sites like myspace or xanga.

These kids are in the greatest danger when they go online without any supervision, and masquerade as older kids, which is often the case.

As young teens, they're at an age where they want to be independent like older teens, but they still aren't sophisticated enough to understand the kinds of online dangers in places like myspace.

They're the perfect victims for Internet predators, who often lie about their age too, in order to lull the child into revealing personal information.

Cronic suggests monitoring your child's Internet use in an effort to protect children from Internet predators, but this can be difficult for parents who work, or who can't be there to watch over their child's shoulder every time they log on.

This is just another reason why Awareness Tech's WebWatcher is really a parent's best tool in the fight against online predators. WebWatcher can be accessed from anywhere, meaning that a busy parent at work can check in on their child's Internet activities from any remote computer.

And WebWatcher combines website blocking, website recording, email recording and chat recording software to give parents a complete picture of their child's Internet activities.

This age can be a dangerous one for kids who go online, and WebWatcher is a great way for parents to keep those dangers at bay.

According to msn.com, many adults are fearful of signing up for Internet service because they have kids, and they don't want Internet predators to have access to those kids.

But as the journalist of this piece makes clear, "house calls from predators don't happen spontaneously."

Nor is the Internet useful only for Internet predators and cyber bullies who want to attack your child.

Kids can gain immensely from using the Internet -- after all it's the greatest learning tool that mankind has ever created.

However, if your child is too innocent, too vulnerable, or overconfident, then problems arise.

Internet predators are smart; they'll often masquerade as someone closer to your child's age to win their trust.

It's through these kinds of "relationships" that the danger arises.

The best thing parents can do is talk to their kids, and often, about the dangers of the Internet.

And, they can get parental control software.

Awareness Tech's WebWatcher, one of the most highly rated of the bunch, is the best example of what parents need to protect their kids. It combines website blocking with website recording, email recording with chat recording, and it's easy to install and easy to use.

This way, your child can safely enjoy all of the benefits of the Internet.

At the herald-review.com, reference librarian Chris Sweet suggests that being the "domineering" parent isn't such a good idea when one's child wants access to myspace.com.

And in a sense, Sweet is correct regarding myspace, or any of the social networking sites out there today. These sites are accessible from almost anywhere, and if your child wants to get to them, he or she can certainly do so from a friend's house, and in many cases, from public libraries.

At the same time, parents do need to be aware of what their children see and who they're talking to online. Parents who don't police their child's myspace activities at all are running a dangerous risk, especially when Internet stalkers, online predators, and cyber bullying are as prevalent as they are today.

This is why parental control software is so helpful -- parents can choose to tell their children about it, or not tell them, since it's invisible while running.

And in the case of Awareness Tech's WebWatcher, parents can use the website blocking feature, the website recording feature, and the email and chat recording all at once. This allows parents the sense of "being there" to watch over their kids, even when they can't physically look of their shoulder.

It's the perfect compromise between the "domineering" parent, and the parent who ought to be doing more.

The washingtonpost.com makes a good point when it refers to the myspace phenomenon as a "mixed blessing."

Certainly we've heard a great deal about the dangers of kids spending time online in social networking sites like myspace, xanga, and facebook.

And the fears that parents have of Internet predators, Internet stalkers, and cyber bullying are completely valid.

And yet, myspace has also been touted as a great space for young people to express themselves, meet with friends, and interact with their peers.

It's "the mall" of previous decades, where kids go to meet other kids, but on a global level.

And like any scene where kids will be found, there will also be dangers; after all, an Internet predator isn't that different from a real life predator, they only have a better tool at hand to manipulate kids with.

The best way to negotiate the mixed blessing of myspace and other social networking sites is to install parental control software.

Awareness Tech's WebWatcher, one of the most highly rated and reviewed of them all, allows parents website blocking, website recording, and more.

This way, parents can modify their child's use of the Internet without cutting it out completely.

As most parents would agree, it's much better to know who your child is talking to then to find out too late.

In Wisconsin, a recently arrested Internet predator feared he would be caught in an undercover sting like those he had seen on TV.

Of course, this didn't stop him from preying upon what he thought was a 14-year-old girl from Ohio.

And as daily arrests around the country continue, regular people have to ask how it is that so many Internet predators are still out there, using the Internet to prey on kids.

Well, the truth is that it's about the odds, and they know it.

At any given time there are 50,000 predators online, looking for kids who are too vulnerable or naive to know better.

And there's just no way that law enforcement officials can catch them all. So for every online predator that gets caught and arrested, there are many more who slip through the cracks and escape those undercover stings.

This is why parental control software is a must for any parent today; parents need to watch their kids, know who their kids are talking to, and know what's being said.

And this is why WebWatcher is such a good product. With website blocking, website recording, email recording, and chat recording capabilities, WebWatcher helps parents to stay in touch with their child's Internet experience, and protect them where no one else can.

An article this week at the shreveporttimes.com outlines the recent successes of Louisiana's new online multiagency task force designed to protect children from Internet predators.

Since it's debut there have been 6 arrests in the last 48 hours, one of them a popular radio personality who thought he was arranging to have sex with children ages 12, 14, and 15.

But as Sheriff's deputies are making clear, most of these men had been preying on kids for some time, revealing that many of these crimes are not being reported.

And that there is a great deal going on that parents don't know about.

Once again, this is why parental control software is an indispensable tool for parents today; Awareness Tech's WebWatcher allows parents to see who their kids are talking to and what's being said.

This is because WebWatcher implements website recording software, website blocking capabilities, email recording, and chat recording, all available in one package that gives parents the clearest view of their child's Internet use.

If 6 Internet predators can be caught, in one state, in 48 hours, and many of these crimes aren't being reported, then the reality of what's facing kids online today is chilling.

CNN ran a story about a 16-year-old girl who tricked her parents and flew to the Mideast to meet a 20-year-old man she met on myspace.

This incident follows a lawsuit filed by a 14-year-old girl who was victimized by an Internet predator she met on the online social network.

In response, myspace is implementing a new security measure that won't allow adults to chat with minors unless they already know the email address or full name of the minor.

While this security measure will help, parents need to do more to protect their children from online predators.

Many predators masquerade as a minor or as a student themselves, so they can lull their victims into a false sense of security. And most kids are far more willing to share personal information with someone they see as a peer. This becomes a danger because myspace doesn't have any mechanisms in place to prove the ages of its users.

This is why parental control software, like WebWatcher, is still a necessity, regardless of the security that myspace is seeking to ensure.

With the email recording and chat recording software that comes with Awareness Tech's WebWatcher parents can know who their kids are talking to, and what is being said.

It's the best kind of security out there for kids who go online.

A 14-year-old girl from Travis County Texas sued myspace.com for failing to protect her from an Internet predator.

According to statesman.com, she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old man she met online. And as she is not by any means the first minor to suffer this fate at the hands of an Internet predator, her lawsuit is not surprising.

However, it is rather naive to assume that myspace should bear all the blame in cases like this.

After all, where were her parents?

Where were her parents when she was chatting online with an Internet predator for a month?

Where were her parents when she willingly got into a car with this man, who picked her up from school?

It's true that social networking sites should be used with care; they can sometimes provide anonymity to pedophiles, stalkers and predators. But it's a parent's job to teach their kids not to talk to strangers, whether they meet them in real life or online.

This is why parental control software like WebWatcher is important: it allows parents to implement website blocking technology and website recording, as well as chat recording and email recording.

WebWatcher allows parents to keep watching their kids when they make that move from the real world to the cyber world.

This week in Philadelphia, a well known, 48-year-old reporter was arrested for attempting to meet and have sex with a 13-year-old girl he had approached online.

In Tennessee a 24-year-old man was convicted of raping two girls -- aged 12 and 16 -- he met online. They thought they were safe because there were two of them.

In Grand Rapids, Missouri, a 29-year-old man was caught preying upon multiple children online; the police are still unsure of how many victims there may be.

In Indiana, a 55-year-old teacher was arrested for driving across state lines to meet and have sex with a 13-year-old boy he met online.

There's been a lot of talk lately that the fear of Internet predators has been blown out of proportion, that the media is using it to gain ratings.

But, as the number of arrests rise, it's quite clear that the Internet is as dangerous for our kids as it is useful.

Internet Predators want you to think that there isn't a real threat, which is exactly why every parent needs parental control software on their computer.

In Florida, a 49-year-old Internet predator was arrested for soliciting sex from a minor online.

The man thought he was "chatting" with a 15-year-old girl, who he intended to meet for sex and then bring back to his native state of Georgia, but he was really chatting with undercover investigators.

All Internet predators work to "groom" the child they seek to manipulate, and in this case, it had taken an entire year. This seems like a long time, but it isn't uncommon.

In fact, many kids who are victimized by an Internet predator spend close to that amount of time in contact with the adult in question. This means that for that whole period, this child was communicating with a predator, and their parents never knew.

It seems impossible to believe, but many parents just aren't aware of who their kids talk to online. And kids today are often more computer savvy than their parents anyway, making simple website blockers almost useless.

This is why parental control software is so important. WebWatcher by Awareness Tech allows parents to use secure and sophisticated web blocking, as well as website recording software, and keystroke recording. This way parents know what their kids did, and didn't, see online.

And with WebWatcher, any parent could also know who their child is talking to, what's being said, and for how long.

An Internet predator is willing to take as much time as necessary to manipulate and prey upon your child; having good software can prevent them from finding success.

Washington County was recently stunned when a teacher and one-time school principal from New York was arrested for preying on a girl he met online. He is a 37-year-old online predator, and she is only 15.

The man's status as an upstanding citizen with no criminal record may seem shocking, but as it is reported at enterprisepub.com, there is no "cookie cutter" profile for a child predator. Except for their gender (the vast majority are male), these online predators can be of any race, age, educational, and social level.

Why is this epidemic happening?

Online security experts believe that the anonymous nature of the Internet allows many men to pursue these kinds of tendencies without the same fears of discovery and punishment that would have been the case before.

And, vulnerable kids who are lonely, bored, or naive also respond to the anonymity of the net -- social pressures are much easier to negotiate online, and many kids lose track of a real social hierarchy when communicating with adults online.

Then again, sometimes these kids think they're talking to someone their own age, when they're really talking to an online predator hoping to manipulate them.

These are more than enough reasons for parents to purchase parental control software.

Awareness Tech's highly rated WebWatcher is perhaps the best product on the market; it allows parents both website blocking, and website recording features. These are combined with a program that records every chat, email, and photo that your child receives, giving parents a full picture of their child's Internet "buddies."

As schools across America let kids out for the summer, parents should be gearing up to promote online safety in their households.

During the summer, Internet use goes up for kids as they seek to communicate with friends who may be far away, try to make new friends, or just look for something to do out of boredom.

But as it's laid out at pensacolanewsjournal.com, when kids get bored online, or look around to contact friends, they are also at risk for online predators.

In fact, a bored or lonely child is exactly what an online predator wants to come across: these kinds of kids are vulnerable and easier to manipulate.

And like it says in the article -- "it can happen to any child" -- even those who seem mature or responsible.

One great way to let your kids enjoy the benefits of the Internet is for parents to purchase parental control software.

And it's best to get a program that can do both website blocking, to avoid inappropriate materials, and website recording so parents can monitor chats and emails if need be.

And only Awareness Tech's WebWatcher does both. WebWatcher combines website blocking and website recording to give parents the full picture in their child's Internet use without infringing on the positive benefits of the Internet.