An alarming new study is out, and if you are a parent, you should take note…children as young as 8-years old are being sexually exploited via social media. This is a definite downturn from past research, and it seems like one thing is to blame: live streaming.

YouTubeserves up videos of kids, in clothing, that pedophiles consume and share as if it is child porn. It’s gottenso bad that YouTube has had to disable the comments sections of videos withkids in them.

Appslike TikTok are very popular with younger kids, and they are also becoming morepopular for the sexual predators who seek out those kids. These apps aredifficult to moderate, and since it happens in real time, you have a situationthat is almost perfectly set up for exploitation.

Lastyear, a survey found that approximately 57 percent of 12-year olds and 28% of10-year olds are accessing live-streaming content. However, legally, the natureof much of this content should not be accessed by children under the age of 13.To make matters worse, about 25 percent of these children have seen somethingwhile watching a live stream that they and their parents regretted them seeing

Protecting Your Children

Anychild can become a victim here, but as a parent, there are some things you cando to protect your kids. First, you should ask yourself the followingquestions:

• Areyou posting pictures or video of your children online? Do you allow your kidsto do the same? A simple video of your child by the pool has become pedophileporn.
• Doyou have some type of protection in place for your kids when they go online?
• Haveyou talked to your children about the dangers of sharing passwords or accountinformation?
• Doyour kids understand what type of behavior is appropriate when online?
• Doyou personally know, or do your kids personally know, the people they interactwith online?
• Canyour kids identify questions from others that might be red flags, such as“where do you live?” “What are your parents names?” “Where do you go toschool?”
• Doyour kids feel safe coming to you to talk about things that make them feeluncomfortable?

Itis also important that you, as a parent, look for red flags in your children’sbehavior. Here are some of those signs:

• Yourkid gets angry if you don’t let them go online.
• Yourchild become secretive about what they do online, such as hiding their phonewhen you walk into the room.
• Yourkid withdraws from friends or family to spend time online.

It might sound like the perfect solution is to “turn off the internet” at home, but remember, your kids can access the internet in other ways, including at school and at the homes of their friends. It would be great to build a wall around your kids to keep them safe, but that’s not practical, nor is it in their best interest. Instead, talk to your child about online safety and make sure the entire family understands the dangers that are out there.

Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of Identity Theft Privacy: Security Protection and Fraud Prevention: Your Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft and Computer Fraud. See him knock’em dead in this Security Awareness Training video