12-10-24
Article submitted by Addison Day
As assigned by their ENGL-1301 Professor, Professor Ruiz, this group of Knippa Collegiate students banded together to face a topic they felt strongly about. These girls discussed and brainstormed ways to present the brutalities of reality for children around the world in a respectful manner while taking inspiration from Jonathen Swift in his article, A Modest Proposal. In this article, they offered a satirical solution to the problem, while at the end proposing a true suggestion in order to grab the attention of those around them.
Stolen through a Screen
Statistics from the year 2022 state, one in six kids ranging from ages nine to twelve have experienced romantic or sexual conversations with an online-only contact. To make things worse, one in eight children of the same age range had shared a nude image with an online-only connection. (Thorn, Online Grooming) These statistics have only become increasingly worrisome over the recent years, from 2022 to 2023 reports of children being
victims of sexual exploitation online shot from 32 million to 36 million. (USOPC) Although systems have been instituted to prevent online child trafficking such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline, which allows individuals to report suspected sexual exploitation of children, something more must be done. Access to social media allows children to meet and interact with strangers, which must be prevented.
In order to prevent children from speaking with strangers online, their access to social media will be revoked until they turn sixteen. This will prevent them from having such easy access to people who they do not know, and who want to harm them. In schools, if the district chooses to do so, the students will have access to heavily monitored and restricted devices which will be used only for school purposes. This would be good for the workforce, as there would be jobs monitoring which needed to be filled. Although firewalls could be instituted, children can learn their ways around this, and firewalls are not always reliable.
If the school does not choose to allow access to technology, then the students will have to find other ways to complete their assignments. The students will have to use physical textbooks, dictionaries, and encyclopedias. This may seem arbitrary and impractical, but if these ways of completing assignments worked in the past, then they will work now. Although the assignments may take more time, it will allow the students to remain safe from a whole other
world being the internet.
The solution previously suggested may seem extreme, as our world today relies so heavily on technology. However, online child trafficking is a large-scale issue which requires a real solution. Many people use technology under someone else’s name and image. This is deceitful to all those they come into contact with on the internet. This act, known as catfishing, causes around 55%-65% of online child trafficking. (Thorn) In order to prevent this, social media
apps must require pictures of the user to be submitted along with facial recognition to verify that it is the same person. Another measure which must be taken is the children must take a seminar similar in educational levels to that of Driver’s Ed. In this seminar the children will learn of the dangers of trusting people online.
Children need to be protected from the dangers of social media. We should not only protect the children, but a punishment should be applied so child trafficking can potentially be prevented. The punishment should be applied to anyone who is involved in the act of child trafficking. The punishment should be life in prison with no chance of parole. The victim should not be alone, there should be support groups put in place. The victim should be able to have
someone to talk to. Overall, we have a big issue, online child trafficking, but we can try our hardest to prevent it. Our job is to keep the children safe, if you see something say something. We are in this fight together to stop child trafficking.
Websites used
https://eightdaysofhope.com/app/uploads/2022/11/Human-Trafficking-Statistics-and-Online-Safety.pdf