Paedophilia in the internet age: The role of parents in child protection

By Rotimi Onadipe

In today’s internet age, the introduction of social media websites, smartphone, iPad and other digital devices has a lot of positive impacts in the social, academic, financial and spiritual life of the users. Social media is a powerful medium for communication and the introduction of the internet is a great comfort to many lives.

Despite the great benefits of the introduction of the internet, we must be informed about the danger of abnormal usage of the internet and the threat it poses to the society, particularly the young children. One of the dangerous effects of abnormal usage of the internet in today’s technology age is the prevalence of paedophilia.

What is Paedophilia?

Paedophilia is the condition in which an adult is being sexually attracted to young children.

Who is a Paedophile?

A paedophile is someone who is sexually interested in children.

Paedophiles have done incalculable damage to the lives of many innocent children around the world. Many children have been killed by the perpetrators while others are now living with the trauma. It is very unfortunate that most parents don’t take the menace of paedophilia seriously until their children have become victims.

Paedophilia is becoming more prevalent and the perpetrators are getting smarter, particularly with the use of technology to get their victims. According to a report by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), more than 10,000 offences of online child sex abuse were recorded between April 2019 and March 2020, a 16% increase on the previous year.

In order to protect the children from this prevailing evil, parents must educate themselves and their children about how to spot a paedophile and prevent him from carrying out his evil mission.

How to spot a paedophile

1. In most cases, a paedophile interacts better with children than adults.
2. He/she pretends to be someone who cares a lot about the welfare of children.
3. Most paedophiles want to work as volunteers in many children organisations.
4. A paedophile always uses gifts to entice his targeted victim.
5. The victim has special interest in him and wants to be around him at all times.
6. The victim feels restless or uncomfortable when the paedophile is not around him.
7. Most paedophiles have characteristics of pornography addicts.
8. Most paedophiles are always active in children’s online platforms in order to search for victims.
9. A paedophile collects sexually explicit pictures and videos of young children and share them with other paedophiles through his mobile phone.
10. When a male paedophile is interested in a young girl, he calls her his lover or wife. A female paedophile also calls a young boy her lover or husband when she is interested in him.

How to protect your children from paedophiles

1. Teach them moral education and inculcate the fear of God in them.
2. Educate your children about internet safety.
3. Set up hidden camera to monitor them.
4. Learn to understand their mood at all times.
5. Monitor their social media activities.
6. Discourage them from sitting on anyone’s lap particularly the opposite sex.
7. Be very close to them so that they can always share their personal issues with you.
8. Let them know that no one has the right to see any private part of their body.
9. If you notice any strange behaviour in them, take appropriate action immediately.
10. Prevent them from watching pornographic films or keeping pornographic materials around them.
11. Tell them to report to you about anyone that touches any private part of their body or talks to them about sex.
12. Let them know they should not trust anyone and they should be alert at all times.

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Rotimi Onadipe is of Ona Tech Consult

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