——You probably remember this from last year’s school assembly. But if you don’t, that’s okay too- we talked about how misuse of Internet can not only harm the people around you but also put yourself in danger as well.
Remember? We watched this “child predator” social experiment () of a 21-year-old man pretending as a 15-year-old boy on social media, trying to spark relationships with three girls aged 12, 13, and 14 and eventually meet them face to face. Unsurprisingly (most educational social experiments are like this…), none of the girls made “the wise decision”. All of them agreed to meet the stranger when their parents weren’t around, with one of them even climbed in to his van. As the experiment shown clearly, these vulnerable young adolescents are way too naive about the people on social media.
The reactions from the parents were also dramatic and thought-provoking. One of the mother was fully confident on her child, believing she was mature enough to handle the situation. But at the moment when the child hopped into the van, you could tell that the mother’s expression turned all in a sudden…
Exactly!!! Most parents believe their child are aware of the potential danger on social media plus the correct ways to deal with it, because they have educated them on this issue before. One mother in the video said, “What about all the news and movies we watched together?” -They never noticed how easy it is for a Facebook stranger to become a real life predator of their child, or I guess, do their child still understand the seriousness of the situation when the news, the movies, or whatever is replaced by the virtual world? - these are all questions that this social experiment left for the parents.
These days, many ads and PSAs use innovative strategies and fancy effects to get their message across the viewers. Indeed, these tactics are visually eye-catching and sometimes memorable, but I feel our ultimate impression towards this kind of ad is largely based on its aesthetic value (ex: “that celebrity looks great” or “that commercial is funny”) rather than the actual product or the idea that requires our critical attention.
Clearly this is not what the producer of this video wants: the purpose of the video is to make more people aware of the seriousness of this LIFE-DESTROYING issue. To achieve this, the producer conducted a social experiment, a realistic and relatable way to convey the message:
This is how dangerous it is.
This can happen to you as well.
This is what your children are facing in today’s digital world.
The experiment parts of the video are full of long shots and candid camera. Although the original purpose of using candid/tilted angle on some of the shots were to not let the girls find out about the experiment, it actually creates tensive and fearful atmosphere for the viewers (in films, many crime scenes are filmed in these angles).
Besides the use of “fear”, real emotions of the participants are shown throughout the video, which makes it very relatable for us. Seriously, hearing one of the father say “I already lost your mother, what would I do if I lost you?!?!” was already heartbreaking for me… Can you imagine that there are countless families being destroyed because of these online-predators?
The video concludes by noting that there are over 750,000 registered sex offenders currently living in the United States. Another research I found shows that 30% of the teenage girls in the US have met a person in real life who they had previously met online when that person's identity had not been fully confirmed.
If you link these two pieces of information together, what an absolutely terrifying and yet entirely predictable fact! The success of this social experiment (the video) is proven with 44 million views on Youtube, and more importantly, it highlights the scope of this serious and life-destroying issue and that is easily preventable when people are educated about the matter.
So Think carefully before you add a new friend on social media. Do you really know the person? By clicking that “confirm” button, you are actually confirming that you are aware of the the potential risk of doing so. Do not put yourself in danger with social media just because a moment of carelessness, it’s not worth it- the price is way too high!!!
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