Why the Internet?

An Internet user's anonymity is the greatest contributing factor towards the prevalence of online predators. Screen names act as pseudonyms to be a completely different person. A 50 year old man could easily become a 13 year old boy in the online community. The honor system is very loosely upheld when it comes to giving out personal information such as age, gender, sex and location. Online predators no longer have to risk going to public places like playgrounds to try to talk to children. With the help of the Internet, they can comfortably talk to children in their own homes and usually without supervision from the children's parents.

Another appeal for online predators is the ability to freely network with other predators online. They can seek out others just like them in order to gain confidence and validation that what they are doing or want to do is completely normal and okay. They can offer each other advice on different issues regarding their secret lives such as avoiding the police and the best internet sites and tactics to use to lure in children. A very popular meeting area for these predators are online chat rooms