When I write of "pedophile's delight" I am not referring to the act itself, which is disgraceful, abusive, harmful, and wrong on every level, nor am I referring to the severity of the punishment for those convicted sex offenders, instead what I am referring to is that in today's society with its ubiquitous online social media it is truly a time in which the fox is guarding the henhouse. Consumer Reports stated on 5/10/2011 that: "of the 20 million minors who actively used Facebook in the past year, 7.5 million of them were younger than 13, according to projections from Consumer Reports’ latest State of the Net survey. Facebook’s terms of service require users to be at least 13 years old. Also among this group of minors using Facebook, more than 5 million were 10 and under." The WSJ followed this up with their 2011 survey of 1,007 parents in which 19% of children age 10 had a Facebook account, 32% at age 11, 55% at age 12, 69% at age 13, and 78% at age 14.
Pedophiles' already have access to children through all of the usual methods, what has changed during the Facebook era of the last decade is their ability to exploit children and teenagers using that same social media. As easy as it is for a child to pretend to be an age that they are not, it is just as easy for a predator to do the exact same thing in reverse. Just as a child can post age information and data that are inaccurate, so can a pedophile do the same thing with pictures stolen or taken from other accounts or other media and create a fake profile that allows them to represent themselves as nearly the same age as their intended victim. Because the adult has the intelligence, the deviousness, the physical strength, and the experience, it is hardly a fair contest for that same adult to successfully assault and/or exploit the child. Social media sites such as Facebook create both the roadway and the necessary pathway for pedophiles to successfully ply their trade.
Through it all, the parents of the child are oblivious that their child is even in danger of molestation and exploitation for an adult's deviant pleasure through sites such as Facebook. Instead we have the illusion of safety that Facebook sells to its users, when in fact, you can make a very strong argument that Facebook has an absolute duty to restrict, protect, and to assist their underage users in knowing the dangers that social media can present. As a parent you warn your child not to talk to strangers outside of your presence, to never get into a car with a stranger, that there is strength in numbers and therefore not to walk alone, and that when in doubt to not take a chance but to return to your safe zones. The online pedophile can take advantage of these defense mechanisms, because he knows your name, where you live, where you go to school at, what your habits and likes are, and he can pretend to be something that he is not such as a security officer, or teacher, or anything that makes him look respectable and upstanding to you.
Pedophiles have never had it any better, they can search for their potential victims, systematically, diligently and at any hour (for instance, does it make sense for a "thirteen year old" to be online at 3 AM on a school day and shouldn't this be red- flagged). Pedophiles can afford to look and look again since the cost of their attempts merely comes down to the value of their own time and they won't stop until they find their victim. It is for them, the best of times.