What we won't do

We won't tell you that kids who become victims of online predators are usually engaging in risky online behaviors like going to sexual sites and chat rooms. It's weird to admit that adolescents are interested in that kind of stuff.

We won't ask to see what sites you're visiting or look at your chat logs from public chat rooms. We might see something that makes us uncomfortable.

We won't provide an open door to talk if you're a teenage boy questioning your sexuality, even though a quarter of online predators are looking for boys and it's often hard for gay teens to know what to do. It might be too controversial.

Sorry, kids! We just won't do the things we ought to do to help keep you safe.

Here's what we will do:

We will tell you that it's super super important to keep your name and pictures offline, even though research shows that has no effect on the likelihood of you being solicited. It's easy to teach simple solutions even if they don't work.

We will filter your internet use in school so that we don't have to deal with your risky online behaviors. We're not liable for what you do at home, and we'd rather not know.

We will take drastic steps to protect under-13s, even though they represent a ridiculously tiny fraction of online sex abuse cases and young kids are much more at risk from predatory relatives and people they know offline than strangers online. It makes us feel like we are accomplishing something.

We will pretend that online predators are usually people who pretend to be young then stalk and kidnap you, even though the vast majority of online predators tell you they're adults looking for sex and very few online sex abuse cases involve forced abduction. We prefer to ignore the uncomfortable truth.