Chat-rooms Predators: Are we safe?

You’re 13? What’s your bust size?
Not so easy for cops to act / Advice for young girls on chatrooms
School fires coach who tried to hook up with ‘13-year-old’


One man’s opening line was, “Want sex and quick cash?”
“I treat you everything tomorrow, but you have to let me feel feel you.” another promised.
Another guy wanted to know how short her school skirt was.

Such was the situation in a local Internet relay chat room (IRC). Cheryl Tan poses as a 13-year-old schoolgirl and gets one indecent proposal after another, within minutes of entering an Internet chat room. These men are worried that, under the law, it is illegal to have sex with a girl under the age of 16; the lewd offers still came thick and fast.

The punishment for statutory rape is severe – the culprit will be jailed at least eight years and given a minimum 12 strokes of the cane. Despite this, cases of men prowling IRCs and luring young girls into meeting them for sex are becoming more rampant over the last six years. Last year, the police received 217 reports of men who had sex with underage girls, almost double the 114 cases in 2001.

Despite the gravity of the issue, some girls are not all so innocent. Many crave the attention these men lavish. “They find it fun to have men go ga-ga over their photos,” said Psychiatrist Brian Yeo. Some of the girls might just want to enjoy the material benefits and luxury that those men often shower them with. These girls just do not respect their body, and think about their future. Not much could be done to change their mentality; the pleas just fell on deaf ears.

On the other hand, through the perspective of these sexual predators, Dr. Yeo said men who target young girls do so to “feel in control”. He said they get a “thrill” and consider it a “conquest” when a young girl gives in to their request. Psychologist Daniel Koh added that because the young girls are sexually inexperienced, these men think they are “easier to please”.

In addition, the law is currently making it difficult for the police to act against men who just ask young girls to meet them, even though the men may have the intention of having sex with them. Criminal lawyer Sunil Sudheesan said that just asking a teenager out would only qualify as being “part of the preparation” and not a “substantial step” towards an attempted crime. He added that proving the intent to have sex with the girl “is usually quite difficult at this stage unless there is concrete evidence (by catching him in the act of sexual activity with the girl)”

The apparent gap in the law is perhaps one of the main reasons behind the audacity of those paedophiles. Apparently, they feel that they could get away with their crime very easily. They might, but not for long, as the laws will be toughened soon to deal with such paedophiles.

As male teenagers, the best we could do is to advice and warn our friends not to meet strangers whom they talked to online.

-Finance and Law-

Anti-Smoking Ads On Television: What's the concern?

Why put graphic anti-smoking ad on TV?

Don’t shield kids from shocking anti-smoking ads, say some

Anti-cig ad too scary? If it works, it’s worth it

Effective but disturbing anti-smoking ad to run after 8pm

The Health Promotion Board has taken the anti-smoking campaign to yet another level. Not long ago, the vivid anti-smoking campaign by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) entered the limelight for its “shocking images” of a woman stricken with oral cancer. The HPB’s advertisement was rescheduled to be aired after 8pm and prefaced it with a warning, following a public outcry fuelled by fears of the ad’s effect on children.

Firstly, I feel that the main intention of the advertisements was to engrave in the impressionable young minds the shocking consequences of smoking, and it will forever remain a strong and subconscious deterrent to even touch a cigarette. It may be a little naïve, but in my opinion, the HPB’s effort is commendable.

It was also reported that one member of the public had complained that her child was so traumatised by the commercial that she had a nightmare that night, waking up and screaming for her daddy. If this was the case, then I feel that the message has been delivered effectively. However frightened they may be feeling now, I believe that many years down the road, those children who have seen the ad will thank the HPB for the vivid images that appeared in their nightmares and kept them from smoking.

Other members of the public also criticized the timing of the advertisement. Citizens have been complaining of losing their appetite after watching the advertisement. I had a similar experience as well; it was really not nice for an advertisement to ruin my meal. Thankfully, the HPB has solved our problems by rescheduling it to after dinner time.

However, looking from another perspective, the use of shock tactics to scare children into not smoking is rather flawed. Firstly, children would not understand why smoking is bad. It would be more meaningful and effective to educate them about how the substances in cigarette smoke affect the body too, rather than just using superficial shock tactics. Also, the effects vary among children, some children may be more susceptible and negatively-receptive to such scares; the permanent psychological harm to a child might not be obvious to the parents, leaving the child to live on with such harmful scars. Likewise, people do get disgusted at such images. It is simply revolting to watch shocking ads at any time.

In conclusion, while shock tactics are useful, a clear line should be drawn regarding how shock tactics may be used, as they do offend a significant number of people. Furthermore, it is near impossible to change the habit of adult smokers, who are unperturbed by the even more grotesque pictures on cigarette packs. Wouldn’t the public also be numb to such tactics after a while?

In my opinion, the main intention is to deter the young from smoking and seizing the time when their minds are young to change their mindset about smoking, and not so much of deterring adult smokers. This will hopefully stop a new generation of adult smokers from appearing.

-Finance and Law-