I recently read where Facebook has removed 5,500 sex offenders from their site. Not long ago, I had a rather odd experience on Facebook which shows just how vulnerable kids can be.
My profile is open for anyone to see; I really have no reason to hide it. And it shows my real name and all. But for a while I used an avatar that I use on some other sites, one of the young stars of “Billy Elliot.”
One day I received a friend request from someone with an Hispanic name, which I do not remember. Thinking he was a fellow BETM fan, I allowed it. After all, I had not gotten any other friend requests from anyone who wasn’t a BETM fan, so I thought perhaps this was just the friend of a friend.
We had no contact for several days, and then out of the blue he started chatting with me on Facebook’s little chat thing (which I have since turned off). He started asking me questions about my age and where I lived, and he never said anything really overt, but when he learned that I was NOT the kid in the picture, this guy disappeared, not only from the chat but from my friends list. I am talking, within seconds.
It wasn’t until afterward that I even realized what he had been looking for. That is how subtle he was.
Needless to say, I changed my avatar back to 56 y/o me shooting Tinkerbell at Disneyland. Wonder what kind of perverts that will attract? 😀