[user104658]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

Nope again that makes no sense,it the attempts to contact are common how does that equate that the incidences of violence are rare?

12,431 children contacted childline last year due to online grooming.

Sexual abuse and
online sexual abuse
Young person has been
persuaded/forced by an adult/
older person to take part in
sexual activities, or encouraged
to behave in a sexually
inappropriate way. Includes online
sexual abuse such as exposure
to sexually explicit images,
grooming, sexting etc.

http://www.nspcc.org.uk/globalassets...-2012-2013.pdf

Of course it makes sense - very few of the attempts result in an actual assault and obviously any that end in murder are rare enough to be front page news i.e. Exceptional circumstances.

My point is and has always been that if young people / teens are suitably prepared and skeptical in their "online encounters", know not to give out personal details, know that if someone won't chat on Web Cam then they're potentially not who or what they say they are, know (for later teens, 16+) only ever to meet someone in public and with a group... All of the things that the "net generation" has learned through experience, then it shouldn't be too difficult for most people to keep themselves safe.

In other words I think it should be perfectly possible to arm adolescents with the skills to navigate their online encounters safely on their own rather than wrap them in cotton wool and try to ensure that they don't have those encounters at all. That's what these sorts of stories prompt a lot of people to want to do - monitor, supervise, censor... And that's exactly what leads to kids "getting sneaky" and taking risks, getting themselves into bad situations without anyone knowing.