From the man who once promoted anal implants --"People who molest children should have chips embedded in the rectum that would explode if they violate their parole, "--is it possible John Walsh is finally spouting advice based on research?
Well, sort of. Let's say, a bit of the truth that lies amid Walsh's polished ability to Feed Fear to Parents.
"I've seen a huge increase in crimes against children during the past few years over the Internet," Walsh said. "The message I want to leave with you parents today is to make your kids street smart about cyberspace. Predators are looking for unsophisticated children who might be lonely or naive."
Per the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee,, an Internet industry association whose mission is to work with lawmakers on Internet issues:
Myths and misperceptions about online predators are driving adults to misguided efforts to protect young people, according to researchers.
The public impression is that online predators are "Internet pedophiles who've moved the playground into your living room," said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes against Children Research Center (CCRC) at the University of New Hampshire.
The common wisdom is that predators target young children by pretending to children themselves, and they lure children in using personal information gained by trickery or gathered from the Internet, Finkelhor said. Likewise, society thinks believes predators stalk children, abduct, and rape them, "or even worse," he said.
But, actually, teens, rather than young children, are usually the victims of the crimes, Finkelhor said. Victims often run away from home to be with adults they met online, fall in love with the offenders, and work against police efforts to help them, Finkelhor said.
Only 5 per cent of cases involve violence, only 3 per cent involve abduction, and only 4 per cent of offenders concealed their ages from victims, Finkelhor said. And 80 per cent were "quite explicit" about their sexual intentions.
While authorities work with parents to try to protect kids, the kids most at risk have little trust in their parents. They've been victims of physical or sexual abuse, or have substantial conflicts in their family, he said.
Young people often go online to escape from bad situations at home, said danah boyd, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies how young people interact online.
boyd studies how young people interact online. While society views the home as a safe haven, and the Internet as a dangerous jungle filled with predators, for many at-risk young people, the reverse is true. They go online to escape from abusive or absent parents, or - in affluent homes especially - to escape the overwhelming pressure to achieve.
The good news?
Although Walsh cited these statistics from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children--by the time children are 9 years old, 90 percent use the Internet and one in five children receive a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet every year--what he failed to mention was boyd's findings.
Young people are often resistant to sexual solicitations, the researcher stated. They lump sexual solicitations with online marketing, as nuisances that they delete and move on.
And as Central Floridians are sadly reminded by the discovery of a young child's remains amid the high profile cases of two missing local kids Trenton Duckett and Caylee Anthony, children are more likely to be harmed at the hands of their parents, family members or someone known to them than someone unknown to them.
Read more from the Crimes Against Children Research Center here.
