Dear Parents and Care Givers,
If you are paying attention at all, you have noticed a few things in the last few years:
● An increase in personal electronic devices in children.
● The invention and increase of AI use in general.
This Parent Corner is about how these things are currently affecting our kids, specifically in the use of AI generated photos. Thorn, a technology nonprofit, creates products and does research for the purpose of combatting child sexual abuse. They have been collecting data in a project called the Youth Perspectives on Online Safety. The project has been ongoing now for five years and has surveyed 1,040 minors ranging in age from 9-17 all across the United States.
Here are some of their startling findings:
● 1 in 10 minors report that they know of friends and classmates who have created non-consensual intimate images of other kids using AI. These are called “deepfake nudes.”
● 59% of minors report that they had a potentially harmful experience online.
● 1 in 3 minors say they have had an online sexual interaction. And 1 in 5 kids, ages 9-12 report having had an online sexual interaction with someone they believe to have been an adult.
● 1 in 17 minors say they have personally experienced sextortion. If you checked out September’s issue, you know that this means that these kids are being extorted for some sort of sexual act or other abuse. Many times threats are made to leak the deepfakes, if the victims don’t comply with demands, such as engaging in relationships, sharing explicit content of themselves, siblings or peers, or paying money.
IN OUR BACKYARD has been working with teens and collecting data for years. Between 2022-2024, 934 students from around the country took the Teens Against Trafficking Survey, and here are some key results:
● 135 of the kids reported being in an unsafe situation with someone in person or online where they were afraid to say “no.”
● 50% of the surveyed kids chatted online with someone they have never met in person.
● 68 of the kids reported that they have no safe adult in their life to talk to.
● 35 of the kids named mom or dad as their trusted adult.
● 8 students made a report of being in an unsafe situation with options of sexual abuse, cyber bulling, sextortion, exploitation.
● 1 child reported that their parent was the person that has been mistreating them.
These numbers might surprise you. They might be larger or smaller than you expected. But at IN OUR BACKYARD, we feel strongly that it is our job to advocate, work for, and defend that one.
How do we do that? It isn’t a simple answer. As parents, we can’t blame just one source. Nor is there an easy button.
Here are a few ways to get involved:
*CHECK IN ON SOCIAL MEDIA (and maybe don’t shut it down immediately). It isn’t surprising that social media platforms play a role in making this happen. In the Thorn study, minors reported they were most likely to experience online sexual experiences on the platforms of Omegle (36%), Kik (23%), Snapchat (23%), Telegram (22%), and Instagram (20%), but all platforms hold risk.
The research from the study showed something surprising, (or at least surprising to me), and that is that young people view platforms as an important part of avoiding and defending themselves against threats. Kids who do experience online sexual interactions were almost twice as likely to engage safety features on the platforms than talking to family and friends.
So, before you go disconnecting your kid from social media, think about this: In our digital world and in the culture our kids are growing up in, they are relying heavily on digital features and virtual communities for safety!
*ENGAGE IN CONVERSATION AND BUILD RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR KIDS!
We can’t take social media away without some real conversations:
● Where and with whom do your kids feel safe sharing, especially feelings of fear and mistrust?
● What has led them to choose those environments? Convenience? Broken relationships? Peer pressure? Desire for fun or adventure?
● As parents, what are we doing to assure that our kids can come to us when they are afraid, in danger, or feel shame (even when they are not at fault)?
● If they can’t or won’t come to us, what other safe options are there? Do they know what their resources are?
17% of kids feel like they can truly trust online friends. But 63% of kids said they trusted offline sources of advice and support. That means that if you kids have safe people in theirlives, they are more likely to trust them than virtual connections through social media and gaming platforms. We need to try more than ever to build healthy relationships with our kids and to provide them with safe people to talk to. In Our Backyard’s data shows that parent involvement and trust is SO IMPORTANT to help keep kids safe. YOU are so important!
PROVIDE RESOURCES FOR YOUR KIDS!
Here are some resources for kids. But I strongly recommend checking them out yourself too! Look for talking points and good questions to ask your kids!
NoFiltr
( https://nofiltr.org/) – Offers resources and advice to kids for navigating risky online
experiences. It is a non-judgemental space that offers help with setting boundaries, staying safe, peer support, and tips for truth-checking digital information.
Teens Against Trafficking Teen Guide
(Purchase here)- This resource is from IN OUR BACKYARD and helps youth, grades 6-12, identify risky behaviors and understand what to do when they are in harm’s way.
I know this was a long letter. Thank you for sticking with me. My hope is that this information is truly helpful for you. If you have topics you would like to have covered in this newsletter, please reach out to IN OUR BACKYARD.
Happy Holidays, dear families. We will be returning in January for more Parent Corner content. Until then, please enjoy your time together.
With hope for a better future for our kids,
Gina
References:
Neiswender, C., Stroebel, M., Fitz, S., Toomey, P., Gudger, S., Thorn, BSG, Lee, Y., & Coccaro,
C. (2024). Youth Perspectives on Online Safety, 2023. In Thorn [Report].
https://info.thorn.org/hubfs/Research/Thorn_23_YouthMonitoring_Report.pdf