More to the Story..

There are many cases of online sexual predators, as we all know.  What most might not know, however, is that not all these instances are completely one-sided.  I mean, not every story involved is about a kid who is stalked, sexually harassed, or anything harmful without said kid being unaware of what was about to happen to him/her.
I found a national study done on the Adolescent Health website about internet-initiated sex crimes against minors.  I find this to be a scholarly article for a few reasons.  First, I initiated this search through Google Scholar. Second, the article states that the study was done by 3 doctors: Janis Wolak, J.D., David Finkelhor, Ph.D. and Kimberly Mitchell, Ph.D.  And lastly, there are data in this article that give good proof that the study being talked about it credible.
Now, as I mentioned before, many cases with sexual misconduct between children and adults are known beforehand.  What I mean is that many of the adolescents involved in sexual relations with adults through the Internet actually want the relationship and sexual activities to happen.  This isn't a matter of a child being attacked sexually by someone they met through the Internet - which is usually what I first think of when I hear of incidents like these.
The study took a random sample of 2564 law enforcement agencies and conducted interviews over the phone with local, state, and federal law enforcement investigators concerning 129 sexual offenses against juvenile victims that started with online encounters.
This investigation proved alarming statistics in many ways.  First being that the victims were 13-15 year old teenage girls (75%).  This is not surprising because older male predators (I assume) would go after young girls.  However, the 75% statistic is very alarming because it is such a high number. Next, the study showed that the predators were - 76% of the time - over the age of 25. The study states, "Most offenders did not deceive victims about the fact that they were adults who were interested in sexual relationships. Most victims met and had sex with the adults on more than one occasion."  This is by far the most alarming part of the study in my opinion.  This proves that adolescents knew what they were getting themselves into and were not being tricked in some way.  Wow!
This article was very informative and by appealing to the reader's logos (statistics, etc.) cause one's attention immediately.  This article, being informative, helps show parents, teachers, and anyone else in the situation, how dangerous the Internet is and how dangerous it can be without alarming a child or having violence being used.  A child starting a "love" relationship over the Internet with someone they don't even know and meeting up with them and committing sexual misconduct can be just as dangerous as a sexual predator who is using profanity, threats, and things that would scare the child.  The only difference is that one situation may actually be told to a parent or teacher, the other one is likely to be a secret.