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The Natural Predatory Nature of Humans

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A study published in Nature shows us that both evolution and genetics have made a big impact on the behavior of humans…including in the case of murder. However, as we have become more civilized, these instincts have been muted.

Scientists have looked at the rate of homicide in more than 1,000 species, and they noticed something interesting: The rates of these lethal acts are similar, which means that evolution of each species can give us a good idea of how violent each species really is.

This study states that humans are part of a violent group of similar mammals. These mammals all evolved at the same time, together. Plus, all of these mammals have murderous and violent pasts. So, what does this mean for us? It means that we are violent today because our ancestors were violent.

When you look at all mammals, about three in 1,000 are murderers. However, when you specifically look at humans, the average over time is about 20 in 1,000. Furthermore, when you examine certain time periods, such as the medieval period, this rate rose to about 120 murderers in 1,000. These numbers have fortunately fallen, however, and today, it stands at about 13 murderers per 1,000 people.

So, we are killing each other much less frequently today than we used to 1,000 years ago. However, we are still not as peaceful as other mammals. For instance, killer whales, which we believe to be quite violent, have a murder rate of almost zero against their own species.

We are much more violent than whales, but when we compare our murder rates to those of cougars, baboons, or lemurs, we are less violent. All of these animals have a murder rate of about 100 per 1,000.

Since this research looked at violence by comparing species that are closely related, it is not surprising that these species are similarly violent. It is also interesting that the more closely related a species is, the more similar their instances of violence.

It’s quite difficult to actually calculate the rates of violence among our ancestors, but we are able to get a good idea thanks to archaeological evidence. It was found that by looking at these sites, that violence rates were lower among people who had some type of government or culture. This also suggests that murder rates among a species can be reversed. In fact, this evidence shows that it can decrease or increase based on ecological, cultural, or social factors. This evidence is similar to what was found in a study done at Harvard, which specifically looked at violent crimes including rape and murder.

When looking at these facts, we find that humans are territorial and social, but also naturally violent. As we have developed over time and found more civilized activities, our rates of violence have gotten lower. What’s even more interesting is that most mammals aren’t murderers towards their own species…but some, such as lions, wolves, and primates, which includes humans, engage in violent actions.

Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Identity Was Stolen. See him knock’em dead in this identity theft prevention video.

Predators hunting Kids on Gaming Sites

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As a parent, you may not be crazy about your child spending a lot of time “gaming.” Chances are good that your feelings are fueled by the fact that kids should play outside, be more social, and are getting addicted to tech or maybe the correlation between childhood obesity and excess computer time. It’s not pretty.

12DHowever, there’s another elephant in the room, perhaps squeezing out the obesity threat: the pedophile threat.

Recently on a Long Island college campus, a male student was found to be traipsing through gaming sites that are popular with young boys such as Grand Theft Auto and Minecraft. The 21year old predator, convinced three underage boys to take sexually explicit pictures and send them to him.

It’s tempting to question what these boys were thinking, that they would so freely take and send sexually explicit images of themselves to a complete stranger. But the predator played a numbers game in his trolling quest, finding three vulnerable victims and convincing them that he was “Allison Denario” and ask for the photos.

He’d then pose as Allison’s furious boyfriend. Of course, in real life, an angry boyfriend would normally demand that the photos stop. But “Allison”’s boyfriend told the boys his father was a cop or FBI agent. This angry cyber stranger demanded the boys perform sex acts on camera or he’d snitch on them for sending Allison the images. So. Flipping. Dark.

Well, Mt Predators little game was short-lived and he was charged with child pornography.

For Parents

  • Get an activated security suite for the computer before any game playing begins.
  • Create long strong passwords. Please, no 123Gamer or Jayson14. So a long strong password might be a phrase ImaHugeStarWarsfan or a nonsensical jumble like gowkg850(4)2.
  • Before any game playing, check its Entertainment Rating Software Board’s rating.
  • Protecting your kids is more than just great passwords and online security features. Make your children feel that they won’t be judged or blown off by you if they report something peculiar or suspicious.
  • Teach your kids how to make these reports, about “catching the bad guy in real life.” Feel free to refer to the bad guy as a predator, not just “bully.” Many kids think of “bullies” as other kids who call each other names online. But if a child is old enough to play on gaming sites, they’re old enough to be taught about adult male cybersexual predators and how they pose as young girls.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention.

Feds warn of more Online Predators

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What goes on in the home life of a 14-year-old girl such that she feels there’s nothing better to do than send nude photos of herself to a man whom she’s been corresponding with online? Though this goes well-beyond the parents not bothering to find out what their kids do online, another huge issue is the proliferation of online predators.

2WAnd for parents who DO care enough to monitor their kids’ cyber activities, here’s some unsettling news: A 2013 survey called  Digital Deception: Exploring the Online Disconnect between Parents and Kids revealed that 69 percent of the young respondents reported they knew how to conceal their online activities from their parents. The study also showed that 80 percent of the parent-respondents said they wouldn’t even know how to figure out what their kids’ online activities were. Conclusion: Parents are clueless.

This makes it easier for predators to find victims. There’s the case of a girl who, at age 13, sent an image of herself to a 26 year old man who for the next five years cyber-harassed her, demanding more images. The girl was driven to two suicide attempts and finally alerted authorities who found him.

Another predator tricked a 15-year-old into sending him photos who turned out to be a 50 year old man. They do this by sending photos of younger cuter boys around the same age as their victim females. Parent need to have ongoing dialog with their kids that this is going on everyday somewhere and “it can happen to you too”

These act can often be prevented which once again, brings to mind what kind of parenting or lack of parenting is going on. Though parents can’t monitor their kids’ activities every second, something has to be said about why a young person’s life would be so empty that they end up sending out nude photos of themselves—even if the victim thinks the recipient is the same age!

What Parents Should Do

  • Educate kids about online predators
  • Educate yourself about online predators
  • Warn kids about never sending images into cyber space
  • Make sure kids understand that they will never be shamed for reporting a perilous situation
  • Tell kids that no matter how aggressive or threatening a cyber predator seems to be, they ultimately don’t have that much power; they’re ground meat once the authorities find them.
  • The less time kids spend tinkering around on the Internet, the less likely they’ll meet up with a predator. Get your kids involved in confidence-building activities that develop independent thinking skills and assertiveness.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to BestHomeSecurityCompanys.com discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.

Predators Using Social Media to Stalk Kids

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All the advice one hears when told how to keep your kids safe on the internet from your home computer goes out the window when a mobile phone and other portable devices are introduced into the child’s life.

The sage advice was to put a PC in the living room and monitor your kids activity. Today that becomes impossible when there are tablets, iPads, mobile phones, laptops, online games and webcams. All these technologies provide new opportunities for the bad guy.

Child predators are often those who gravitate towards trusted positions in society where they have direct access to kids. Others hang out in Internet chat rooms and slowly groom their victims. Now many of them are on hundreds of different social networks.

In 2010 the CyberTipline received more than 223,000 reports of nefarious online behavior.“The increase in the number of reports of child pornography and online sexual solicitation of children is alarming,” said Ernie Allen, President & CEO of NCMEC.  “The child pornography images we are receiving are becoming more violent and the victims much younger.  We are even seeing infants being sexually abused.”

With the openness of social media, predators know what a kid likes, doesn’t like, who their friends are, and often their phone numbers, where they live, go to school, sports teams they play on etc. The list goes on and on.

Many of today’s social media sites are also incorporating location based services which allow the user to broadcast their location via a Smartphone or their home. Pictures and status updates can be tagged with relatively accurate positions giving way to much information for the criminal.

MissingKids.com suggests Allowing kids to go online without supervision or ground rules is like allowing them to explore a major metropolitan area by themselves. The Internet, like a city, offers an enormous array of entertainment and educational resources but also presents some potential risks. Kids need help navigating this world.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing Internet Predators on Fox Boston.

Child Abduction Awareness For Parents

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When a true stranger steals a child, the child often doesn’t survive beyond 3 hours. Protecting yourself and children begins with understanding basic security. Today most helicopter parents won’t take their eyes off their kids, and I don’t see that as a bad thing.

Always have recent photos and videos of your child for police. Invest in a fingerprint or DNA kit to help investigators.

In the event that a child is approached, the best defense is a good offense. Resistance has often been a proven tactic for removing oneself from a dangerous situation.

Running, screaming, biting, hitting and kicking feel unnatural to teach your kids, but are natural traits they possess (My 2 year old proves this). I say if they are good at it now, train them to do it better!

As soon as your child is at an age where they can comprehend this issue, it’s time to discuss it. Age 4 they have a pretty good grasp, but age five they seem to be on solid footing.

Role play with your kids. This is a delicate balance of awareness and play. Intellectually introduce scenarios for them to respond to. See how they articulate a response. Let them figure it out on their own. Then if they don’t give you the answer you were looking for, work with them to understand the nature of their choice and its negative impact.

Discuss the Internet and online predators. This is an entire future post. But in the meantime, do your research and know what risks they face. Take control of their access to PC’s and monitor everything they do.

Most importantly, this kind of education is about empowerment. It’s about taking control. It’s a gentle awareness that can save their lives. Don’t guilt them into making the right decisions and make them feel bad about not understanding the issue. If they aren’t ready to comprehend the issue then back off.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing Child Abductions on MSNBC.

Protecting Children on the Internet

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Today’s kids don’t even know what it’s like to not be connected to the Internet. But being technology savvy doesn’t mean they are safe and secure.

Since the Internet as we know it was born in the early 1990s, it has become an integral part of our and our kids’ lives. Online shopping, social media, mobile web, and computers in the classroom are as normal to them as riding a Huffy bicycle was to me. For these kids’ parents, the online world often feels too fast and too complicated. Nevertheless, it is essential that parents educate themselves on safe, secure online practices in order to set a positive example and provide guidance for their children as they navigate the web.

Fortunately, safe and appropriate online behavior isn’t much different than in the real world. The main distinction is that on the Internet, it is necessary to be particularly sensitive regarding how and with whom you communicate.

Parents who lack experience with the Internet, computers, or mobile phones must learn the basics before they can adequately monitor their children’s habits. A parent’s discomfort or unfamiliarity with technology is no excuse to let a child run wild on the Internet.

As with any task, one should start with the fundamentals. In recognition of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, let’s go over some of those fundamentals:

  • Spend as much time as possible with kids in their online world. Learn about the people with whom they interact, the places they visit, and the information they encounter. Be prepared to respond appropriately, regardless of what sort of content they find. Remember, this is family time.
  • One popular tactic has been to set up the computer in a high-traffic family area, and to limit the time children may spend using it. This is still good advice, but it becomes less feasible as more children have their own laptops and mobile phones, which can’t be so easily monitored.
  • Teach children to recognize inappropriate behavior. Kids will be kids, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to say mean things, send racy pictures, make rude requests, or suggest illegal behavior. If it isn’t okay in the physical world, it isn’t okay on the Internet.
  • Consider investing in computer security software with parental controls, which limit the sites kids can access.
  • Decide exactly what is and is not okay with regards to the kinds of websites kids should visit. This dialogue helps parents and children develop a process for determining appropriate online behavior.
  • Children should be restricted to monitored, age-appropriate chat rooms. Spend time with your children to get a feel for the language and discussion occurring on the websites they wish to visit.
  • Do not allow children to create usernames that reveal their true identities or are provocative.
  • Children should be reminded never to reveal passwords, addresses, phone numbers, or other personal information.
  • Kids should not be permitted to post inappropriate photos or photos that may reveal their identities. (For example, a photo in which a t-shirt bears the name of the child’s city or school.)
  • Never allow a child to meet an online stranger in person.
  • Children should be taught not to open online attachments from strangers.

Robert Siciliano, personal security expert contributor to Just Ask Gemalto, discusses online predators on Fox News. Disclosures