Parks, malls, stores, school, work, etc. They are all places we go to everyday, thinking that everything is okay. Could the man behind the counter be a sex offender? Or could the lady who walks your dog be one? You never know who the sex offenders in the world are.

Sex offenders have hidden identities; they don’t want people to know who they are and what they’ve done. But, of course, who would? They do illegal things and people don’t want to be around you. Most sex offenders who make web pages don’t put their real name or e-mail address, because the people would be aware of whom they are. They put little kids and/or young teens as their profile pictures and act as if it’s them.

Offenders would try to talk to an under-aged teenage girl; the girl would meet up with the man she thought was a handsome young teenage boy, things happen and then the parents of the child want to sue the social networking site. The problem is that it’s not the websites’ problem.

Social networking sites aren’t the police. They don’t have to make sure that your child is safe. Everyone should assure that their children don’t talk to strangers, especially on social networking sites. There are many ways that parents can prevent their children from being involved in attacks of sexual predators, such as making sure their children are adding only the people that they actually know as their friends or setting their profile to private: where only certain people can view certain things. Sexual predators have been caught on websites such as MySpace, and profiles of more than 29,000 sex offenders have been found. Sex offenders are everywhere you just have to be aware of them and watch out. (Sex Offenders and Social Networking Sites)