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By the end of 1998, more than 40 percent of all American homes had computers, and 25 percent had Internet access. This trend is expected to continue. Children and teenagers are one of the fastest growing groups of Internet users. An estimated 10 million kids are online today. By the year 2002, this figure is expected to increase to 45 million, and by 2005 to 77 million.
Youth Internet Safety Survey
Only 1/3 of the households with Internet access are proactively protecting their children with filtering or blocking software.
Center for Missing and Exploited Children
75% of children are willing to share personal information online about themselves and their family in exchange for goods and services.
eMarketer
About 25 percent of the youth who encountered a sexual approach or solicitation told a parent.
Youth Internet Safety Survery
One in five U.S. teenagers who regularly log on to the Internet say they have received an unwanted sexual solicitation via the Web. Solicitations were defined as requests to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk, or to give personal sexual information.
Crimes Against Children Research Center
One in 33 youth received an aggressive sexual solicitation in the past year. This means a predator asked a young person to meet somewhere, called a young person on the phone, and/or sent the young person correspondence, money, or gifts through the U.S. Postal Service.
Youth Internet Safety Survey
77% of the targets for online preditors were age 14 or older. Another 22% were users ages 10 to 13.
Crimes Against Children Research Center
Less than 10% of sexual solicitations and only 3%of unwanted exposure episodes were reported to authorities such as a law enforcement agency, an Internet service provider, or a hotline.
Youth Internet Safety Survery
75 percent of the solicited youth were not troubled, 10 percent did not use chat rooms and 9 percent did not talk to strangers.
Crimes Against Children Research Center
Only 25% of solicited children were distressed by their encounters and told a parent.
Crimes Against Children Research Center
One-third of the surveyed youth who had received a solicitation were male; two-thirds were female. The great majority (77 percent) of the victims were 14 to 17 years old; however, almost one quarter were ages 10 to 13. The younger group reported 37 percent of the distressing solicitations.
Youth Internet Safety Survey
Seventy percent of these unwanted solicitations happened when the youth was using a computer at home, and most of the remaining 30 percent happened at someone else's home. Two-thirds of the solicitations took place in chat rooms, and 24 percent were received through Instant Messages (e-mail messages sent and received in real time).
Youth Internet Safety Survey
According to NISMART 2 data estimates, there were 203,900 children abducted by family members, 58,200 children abducted by nonfamily members and 1,682,900 runaway/thrownaway episodes in 1999
National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children
When the abductor is unrelated to the child, the abductor is just as likely to be someone known to the child or family as to be a stranger
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, nearly 800,000 children are reported missing each year. More than 58,000 are kidnapped by nonrelatives. In the case of long-term abductions, 56 percent are eventually rescued, but 40 percent are killed.
Center for Missing and Exploited Children
74 percent of abducted children who are murdered are dead within three hours of the abduction
State of Washington’s Office of the Attorney General