Protecting Your Children Online: What You Need to Know About Online Threats to Your Children - Hardcover

The internet has brought many benefits, but it has also created new dangers for children, as carefully outlined here by McCabe (Sex Trafficking: A Global Perspective). A professor of criminology at Lynchburg College, McCabe explains how online offenses against children differ from other abuse cases, in that the majority of perpetrators come from outside the family. Using research, statistics, and case studies, she covers various types of cybercrimes, including solicitation, extortion, and bullying, and defines relevant terminology, such as cyberstalking and trolling. She observes that parents and other caregivers are often unsure or even unaware of the internet's dangers. McCabe's book provides parents helpful tips for striking up and maintaining a dialogue with their kids through the various stages of childhood. To help guide parents, she discusses behavioral and physical indicators of abuse, how best to protect children, and how to address victimization, including a lengthy appendix devoted to resources for reporting offenses. This book will serve as an instructive tool for parents and communities to better understand and combat online threats to children. * Publishers Weekly * There is no denying the pernicious effects of cyberspace in the 21st Century as examined by McCabe. Her book is an absolute 'must read' for enhancing the understanding of discerning parents and professionals alike - the book includes an excellent "Warning signs" chapter. -- David Barrett, Professor Emeritus, The International Centre for Researching child sexual exploitation, violence and trafficking, University of Bedfordshire As a retired police officer, who specialized in the investigation of exploited children, I certainly recommend this book as parents need to know the dangers children face through the internet. -- Daniel Murphy, MJA, Criminologist, Lynchburg College

As parents, our main job is to protect our children. These days, protection from includes not only the individuals we can see but, also, the individuals that we cannot see - yet who wish to harm our children. And with the growth of social networking and social media parents are often unaware of their child's interactions on the internet. Protecting Your Children Online: What You Need to Know About Online Threats to Your Children introduces the crimes that can occur in cyberspace, as well as procedures for reporting and obtaining assistance in the event of victimization. Throughout Kimberly McCabe addresses several types of cyber crimes, ranging from child pornography and solicitation to cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and sexting, giving parents the necessary information they need to protect their children in cyberspace. This book builds on the historical efforts to reduce child abuse in the United States and looks at the limitations of these efforts when attempting to address child abuse in cyberspace. By identifying these different types of cybercrimes against children, and offering the definitions of terms and law enacted to prohibit these crimes, Kimberly McCabe gives possible responses for attempting to end internet crime on a national, international, and personal level. A definite must have for parents who want to be proactive in protecting their child in cyberspace, and those who wish to be better able to protect them from victimization.