Survey debunks myths about Net predators

Contrary to popular view, child molesters who look for their victims online typically aren’t after young children to abduct and rape.

These adults flatter teenagers, most of them girls ages 13 to 15, who willingly meet them and usually agree to sex, according to a national survey reported at a recent American Psychological Association meeting in Honolulu.

The survey of 375 law enforcement agencies, partially financed by the U.S. Department of Justice, focused on 129 arrests of suspected molesters who “met” victims online. The cases accurately reflect the estimated 500 such arrests a year, says psychologist Kimberly Mitchell of the University of New Hampshire. She analyzed findings with co-authors Janis Wolak and David Finkelhor.

Among myths challenged by the survey:

• Molesters pretend to be peers. In fact, only 5 percent of the suspects did.

• They move quickly. Most messaged online with future victims for more than a month and four out of five had phone conversations.

• They don’t mention wanting sex. Only one out of five hid their desire before meeting, though many professed love and courted the children.

Although molesters favor girls, about a quarter of the arrests were for abusing teen boys.

“Our prevention strategy needs to change,” Mitchell says. Parents have been warned to monitor kids’ Internet use; filtering software can protect teens too, but many know how to bypass the programs.

Parents should be open about discussing sexual topics and make it clear that sex with an adult is a crime, Mitchell says. Depressed or otherwise troubled children are most likely to form close online ties, studies show, and they might be particularly vulnerable to molesters, she says.

Molesters capitalize on teens’ yearning for acceptance, adds San Jose, Calif., psychologist David Marcus: “Being understood is a powerful aphrodisiac.”

Journal reaches out to bloggers

The Wall Street Journal Online is inviting Web loggers under the tent. Each night, bloggers may receive an e-mail from WSJ.com making them aware of a “free feature” — an article from the subscription site available at no cost — on which they can comment and link off their Web sites.

Mark Glaser, writing in the Online Journalism Review, cites the step by the Dow Jones unit as an example of mainstream media outlets starting to realize a link from a prominent blogger can bring in traffic and, with it, buzz. Bill Grueskin, managing editor of WSJ.com, says the blog links have generated substantial traffic, sometimes matching visits through links at Yahoo Finance.

“I see blogging as a nascent phenomenon that is a threat to journalism only to editors who treat it as such,” Grueskin said.

Hotels tap into Net

A comfortable bed, a telephone and a high-speed Internet connection are becoming must-haves for hotel guests.

“A fury” of hotel broadband deployment activity is taking place, according to In-Stat/MDR, a technology and marketing research firm. From small “no-frills” properties to luxury resorts, high-speed access is “now an essential element of the guest room,” the firm said.

Such an essential, of course, comes at a price. In-Stat estimates hotels generated $153 million in revenue from guest room access last year. That number will triple this year, while hotels also boost income by charging for access.

The number of hotels offering broadband is about 5,200 today and will quintuple to 26,828 in the next three years, the research firm projected in its report.

Have you Googled yourself?

No, you’re not obsessively conceited. It’s OK if you have Googled yourself. In fact, 40 percent of us have searched for ourselves in a search engine to find out what the world can learn about us.

A survey conducted by Microsoft said self-searches are the most popular search engine task, followed by queries for friends and family and old flames.

The research also found that people in Los Angeles are most often looking for entertainment news, while New Yorkers want financial information. Men want to know about cars, science and tech; women hunt for celebrity news, health and fashion information.