Teen 'predators' arrested at school

This story in the Nashville area is about the real "predators" of the social networks, if they could be called that. According to the Maryville (Tenn.) Daily Times, two Nashville boys (15 and 17) showed up at the high school of two girls they'd "met" online and were too young even to know that it would've been a good idea not to tell the police they were 18+. They were both charged with criminal trespassing, the 17-year-old also with criminal impersonation, and both were taken to a juvenile detention center, where they were later "released to the custody of their parents," with future court hearings in store. An officer on the case "said he was unsure how the [Maryville High School] students met the two Nashville teens on the Internet, but authorities suspect it was through a social networking Web site or through instant messaging. He said the girls may have also talked to the boys by phone." Research about sexual solicitations of online teens has shown for years that many, probably most, of the solicitations came from other teens. And the latest research (see last week's issue) shows that – while sexual solicitations are down overall despite the popularity of social networking – peer harassment among tweens and teens is up. Another thing we've seen over the past year is that the actual exploitation of teen social networkers (who agreed online to meet with "predators" offline) was consensual. In the Nashville case, two teen boys may well have taken the fall for a mutual arrangement made by both boys and girls, possibly resulting in a different definition of victimization.