Speech on Online Predators and Social Media Safety PDF

Good day everyone! I am Princess Catherine T. Magadia, and I have a question for you, my distinguished guests.    "It's a different era now; who cares if minors are using social media, right?"   Well, I care if minors are using social media, but what are my main reasons?   Social media is a cr...

Good day everyone! I am Princess Catherine T. Magadia, and I have a question for you, my distinguished guests.    "It's a different era now; who cares if minors are using social media, right?"   Well, I care if minors are using social media, but what are my main reasons?   Social media is a cruel world because it is full of people that hide their true selves or where they express who they are. Social media has its own impact in our lives; we meet people on the internet, use social media to communicate with our peers and family, and of course, we cannot escape those people who give off negative vibes on the community as our safe place. Nowadays, minors may encounter online predatory or grooming; secondly, it can be a hindrance to the child's development; and lastly, to avoid exposing them to unconstitutional material. There are a lot of studies and statistical research about it. Firstly, the recent statistic overview on online predatory is around 500,000 thousand; here's the breakdown of the result. - **66.7% **of online predators\' victims are** female.** - **68.97% of tweens **and **90.73% of teens **encountered **sexual content online.** - **Only 7% of parents** knew their kids received inappropriate content from adults. - Internet usage among **3- to 4-year-olds** dramatically **doubled within five years.** - Online predator reports **increased by 106%** early in the **COVID-19 pandemic.** - Threats from strangers to kids online concern **58% of US parents.** - **40% of children** from **grades four to eight **experienced online chatting with strangers. - **1 in 5 children** reported that an online predator contacted them. - **53%** of offenders were **family members.** - **Over 80%** of child sex crimes arise from **social media.** Even this year, there are a lot of predators who roam online, where I also encountered one on the COVID-19 pandemic before. Predators can hide their identities as good friends at first, not until the conversation gets comfortable, as for my experience before. Also, groomers use any techniques so that we can let our guards down, such as catfishing, building trust where they give us emotional support, and giving out help. That's why we should never let our guard down in every conversation we have online. Kids should be having fun and learning, but online predators have robbed them of their childhood and innocence. These experiences can be a hindrance to the child's development and also expose the child to explicit materials since they can exploit and manipulate the child's thinking. Due to this, online communication lacks important cues such as body language, tone, and facial expressions that can lead to conflicts. It can also lower the self-esteem with this; researchers recommend limiting the technology use of the child and having more bonding with their child.\ \ As the conclusion of this speech, I encourage everyone to always be on alert when using social media to protect ourselves and to avoid any dangerous activities online, as they say, "If you don't know the sender, it might be a pretender.\" Thank you, everyone. Have a pleasant day ahead.