Oblicza anonimowości nastolatków w sieci : Child Grooming

Abstract

The development of the Internet gave way to entirely new social behaviour and communication modes emerging among teenagers. With adolescence progressing, there appears the need of belonging to groups. Virtual world provides great opportunities for that, along with the chance to retain anonymity. Internet anonymity, aside from its good aspects, like contributing to community and communication training, has many negative sides as well. It can be used to hurt teenagers, i.e. by means of seducing and sexual abuse. This last problem is connected to child prostitution (sexting) which is getting more and more popular in the Internet - thanks to anonymity. Too early exposure to pornography destroys the sense of shame in children, and shows them a distorted image of human relations, often dominanted by sexual stimuli.