Revolutionized of technology indeed makes people’s life easier. We learned about how communication changes from the form of analogue to digital form now. In this era, almost everything can be replaced by technology. I believe, people in the last decade had no idea how a tiny piece of hardware being called ‘smartphone’ nowadays can bring such a huge impact to the life of mankind on the Earth.
Smartphone, as suggested by the name, it is smart. Almost every people has a smartphone on hand nowadays. People call it information at the tip of the finger for a reason. You can do a lot of things with your smartphone. From waking you up in the morning till the moment you go to bed, you rely on the smartphone. Even when you are communicating to people, you rely on technology too.
Well, it was claimed that the advent of communication technology connects us more easily and in a fast speed. The emergence of new media suggested an openness to create an interactive society. The main idea of new media is about interaction which involves a two- way communication between participants. Our society today is shaped by this powerful information that we receive and through our interaction. No doubt, it is helping in our society’s development. But behind these advantages, do people see the dark side of it?
Because now people can get connected anywhere, anytime, sometimes it invites danger.
Most of the children today has smartphones. They have a Facebook account, WhatsApp, Wechat, Twitter and all sorts of social media which were known to connect and interact with people from everywhere. That is the danger that I would like to share about.
Sexual grooming
Have you heard of this term?
Sexual grooming. According to Dr. Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist. There are six stages of it which are targeting the victim, gaining the victim’s trust, filling the need of the victim, isolating the victim, sexualizing the relationship and maintaining control over the victim. It works in a way that the predator get close to their victim, establishing a friendly relationship with them such as sweet talk them, pretending to have similar interest with them and when they think it is the time, they will isolate their victim and gain control over their victim.
Usually, these predators or groomers would find their prey online. Because they can go anonymous behind the keyboard, pretending to be someone who is attractive to the victim and groom them. When children are chatting or interacting in the chat room with strangers online, they might not realize that they are being groomed and the potential danger behind it. Instead, they might just think that they are meeting with new friends and expanding their social cycle. Their parents might also not be there 24/7 to monitor their children’s activity online and not noticing that their children are being exposed to such potential danger. Do you really know who the new friends that you encountered online really are?
In this article, it mentioned that
"It began with him sending her friendly messages, a few jokes, some emojis thrown in – all relatively innocent. This progressed to asking her to turn the webcam on; I didn’t even know Facebook had a webcam option at that time. She resisted at first, but they were building up a friendship and in the end she felt obliged. She told me that she was also intrigued."
We never realized all these actions that seem no harm to us is actually the beginning of grooming. It seems so innocence and we might think of as people is only trying to be friendly to us. From my opinion, sexual grooming does not necessarily happen on children only. It might happen to everyone as long as you are not aware of the potential danger you are facing.
