The Franklin County Sheriff’s Department earlier this week made an arrest involving a resident kidnapping and sexually abusing a minor, who reportedly met through the Discord app.
This is part of a growing trend of adults hooking up with minors through the use of social media, not only in Iowa but across the country. Franklin County Sheriff Aaron Dodd tells RadioOnTheGo News these instances are becoming more of a problem locally.
“A lot of that’s just like we said it’s the ease of connection through apps and through social media. That’s what’s really driving a lot of this. I don’t have an exact number on frequency but I know that we even have several pending cases now that it is the same demographic. It’s 20 and 30 year old men and minors. So that demographic is changing and I think it is it’s the social media age and kind of the development of both sides. You know, it’s also the adults. We’re trained in how to find victims and then we’re kind of creating a society where our younger teens and pre-teens, you know, social media is a big, big part of their life.”
The threat from social media has changed the ways parents need to protect their kids, especially when using social media platforms. Dodd says there are several ways for parents and guardians to protect their kids from online predators.
“Use parental controls and the monitoring tools that are available. Use tools on devices, browsers, apps that restrict inappropriate contact, and just monitor your students activity. Install monitoring software. There’s apps like Bark, Norton Family. There’s just many apps as there is, which like I said I’m not an expert in any of that, but I do know there’s just as many family apps you can install on devices to kind of protect your child. And that kind of goes with trust and kids, they see what the parents habits are with social media and be transparent with who you’re speaking with as well, and then another discuss privacy with your student, teach them. You don’t share personal information.”
A Pew Research Center study found that teens in the United States spend nearly five hours on social media per day with YouTube and TikTok among the most popular platforms for teens.
