Law enforcement is caution parents to be aware of sexual predators on-line.
The caution comes after the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office lately arrested a dozen other people right through an undercover operation.
“We get on those quite a lot of apps and we actually pose as minors. These sexual predators get on there; they entice your youngsters, they keep up a correspondence with them, they ask on your youngsters to do unlawful issues,” Patrick Martin with the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office said.
Now law enforcement is warning parents to be aware of the following 10 apps:
- Snapchat
- TikTok
- Omegle
- KiK
- Roblox
- Discord
- Whisper
- Vault App
They say there is a higher likelihood of abuse on those apps.
FBI Special Agent Kevin Kauffman weighed in. He said video game chat rooms can also be a hot spot for predators.
“It can be anything that has an online chat function with anybody in the public is fair game to a predator,” Agent Kauffman said.
He said it’s time to talk about it with your kids.
We sat down with Melissa Zentner, a local child therapist, who explained how to bring this up with your children.
“I begin the dialog with so much of open-ended questions. What type of apps have you ever been the use of? Tell me about your folks on-line, and that means, they are ready to come up with information,” Zentner said.
She said to schedule a time to talk about it. Zentner explained the pandemic normalized kids having online friends.
“Parents need to teach children it’s just like walking up to a stranger on the street. You don’t do that. You don’t talk to everybody you come across on the internet,” Zentner said.
She said you can strengthen the privacy setting on your children’s devices and regularly talk about online safety.
Another thing to keep an eye out for is financial sextortion. That is when a predator demand money for keeping nude photos private. FBI Special Agent Kaufman said it’s on the rise in Florida and across the U.S.
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“We’re finding that the main victims are males usually, males will end up sending it to unsuspected females or there portraying themselves as females and asking the males for nude photos.”
Zentner said to be direct when talking about nude photos with your children and use age-appropriate language.
“Talking about taking pictures, talking about again privacy in terms of our body,” Zentner said.
She said it is okay to check your child’s phone and make sure they are not talking to strangers online.
Click right here for extra pointers on how to communicate to youngsters about on-line risks.