From the author: Unfortunately, the absolutely wild statistics of crimes against children on sexual grounds are inexorable. In particular, with the development of information technology, crimes on the Internet are also becoming almost a trend. What dangers can lie in wait for your child on the Internet? Children and social networks Unfortunately, the absolutely wild statistics of crimes against children on sexual grounds are inexorable. In particular, with the development of information technology, crimes on the Internet are also becoming almost a trend. What dangers can await your child online? Some statistics: According to Liya Sharova, head of the Stop-Threat center (stop-ugroza.ru ): “19 out of 20 first- and second-graders and about half of children aged 10-14 are confident that they can easily recognize a criminal on the street (wearing black clothes, creepy, hiding, “looking strange,” walking with a large bag, behaving unusually) , smiling slyly, unnaturally, luring with candy, an unkempt man of 30–35 years old, looking like a homeless person or a criminal).” In other words, in the child’s imagination there is an image of a “bad uncle,” a “suspicious person,” and therefore a criminal. The child sees these images in the movies. But few people talk to a child about the fact that criminals do not always look the way their imagination draws them, that they can be very nice, interesting and sympathetic people. Especially on the Internet, where it is possible to hide your appearance behind any pleasant picture or someone else’s attractive photograph, indicate any data - from age to interests, and start casual communication without any problems... A pedophile is someone with an exceptional sexual interest in sexual relations with minor children. Sex offenders can be extremely thorough in their approach to children. Some may spend weeks or even months (and sometimes years) getting to know a child or teen before inviting the child to meet or asking for their cell phone number. These are “nice people”: they do not look like perverts, and they will probably be savvy in matters of fashion, sports, music, etc. The main activity of pedophiles on the Internet is the exchange of sexually explicit images between “collectors.” Online harassment is a process during which a pedophile tries to establish sexual contact with a child, trying not to expose himself or reveal himself. By creating a page on a social network, the child fills out a questionnaire. When he goes into the profile settings, he, following the logic of the account, dynamically and truthfully answers the questions asked: full name, age, city, place of residence and school, indicates friends and relatives, sometimes phone number. Next - he fills the page with his photographs, and, most often (oh, thanks to millennium technologies and Google Maps!) - with geolocation instructions, which, most likely, offers to automatically indicate the location, and most children simply do not know how to turn it off, and They don’t understand why! And, a potential pervert, a pedophile quite successfully copes with the task of figuring out the child - where he lives, walks, studies. Now it is quite possible to track the IP address of a criminal if he operates from a PC - but (again thanks to the achievements of modern “gadgetology”) if he writes a message on Viber or WhatsApp that is synchronized with social media. network, it is much more difficult to do this. The pervert first conducts conversations on various topics (he has already learned the interests by walking through the victim’s page), which gradually turn into an intimate channel, with the offer to first show his photo, and then asks the child to send his photos. Of course, it takes time for the child to “trust” and send his photos, but believe me, the grown-ups will get their way at any cost. After this, of course, there will be an offer to meet. Perverts are “nice people” and are not at all like criminals. They are very savvy in issues that children and teenagers are interested in - he “ate the dog” on this. He got better at it! Besides.