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This reasoning is flawed. No one said that there weren't teenagers who were the victim of a sex crime and also happened to be Skout users. Rather, the issue is
by jknupp 14y ago
This reasoning is flawed. No one said that there weren't teenagers who were the victim of a sex crime and also happened to be Skout users. Rather, the issue is that the platform was being used by sexual predators as a tool to facilitate initial contact with teenagers they otherwise wouldn't have had access to.
Additionally, it's likely that an overwhelming proportion of those represented in the statistic you cited were victimized by someone they knew rather than a stranger over the internet. For a fair comparison, those victims would need to be excluded. Not to mention the question of what portion of those 2 million users are active enough on Skout to even represent a realistic target. Multiple cases being reported (in the US alone) within a span of days is unlikely enough to warrant drastic action.
- Daniel_Newby 14y agoThe point is that the Internet allows us to search for freakishly unlikely events. The only valid way to decide whether those events are acceptable is by comparing them to events we have already decided ARE acceptable. We have decided that it's acceptable for a few dozen American adolescents to be raped each week. Increasing that rate by at most a few percent is not a cause for panic, nor a reason to put them all under communications house arrest. "... otherwise wouldn't have had access to." If they are spending their energy on Internet meetings, it is certain that they will have less energy to spend on in-person acquaintenances. There is probably a very strong substitution going on. The teenager who is open to the molester next door is certainly even more open to the exciting mysterious molester from the next town.