{"id":25737,"date":"2013-06-06T11:18:52","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T18:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.mcafee.com\/?p=25737"},"modified":"2025-08-27T23:33:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T06:33:06","slug":"words-parent-needs-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/family-safety\/words-parent-needs-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Words Every Parent Needs to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Have you noticed that commonplace words don\u2019t quite mean what they used to? It\u2019s a subtle but alarming shift when simple words such as \u201cgrooming,\u201d \u201cmirroring\u201d and \u201cfishing\u201d take on entirely new meanings when it comes to the web and the threat of online predators.<\/p>\n<h2>3 Words to Re-Learn<\/h2>\n<p>Here are three words as a parent you may want to \u201cre learn,\u201d\u00a0understand, and explain to your kids.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Grooming<\/strong>. Predators are calculating. Online predators do not think the way you think or act the way you act. Their motives and minds work on a drastically different cog. So understanding a predator and teaching your family what to be on guard against takes learning about a whole other breed of human. Predators view tracking down a child online as a type of cat and mouse game. There\u2019s triumph in the hunt for a predator. They invest a great deal of time\u2014sometimes months\u2014trying to get a child to trust them online and share personal information. This process is called grooming. While predators may be mentally disturbed, it does not mean they are stupid. They figure out what is lacking in a child\u2019s life emotionally and find any way possible to try and fill those gaps. They use psychological ploys to gain trust and entry into the child\u2019s world. Then they strike when they believe they have a solid bridge of trust with a child.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mirroring<\/strong>. Predators are devious. They can pick up on a child\u2019s emotional hot buttons and begin to \u201cmirror\u201d back those same emotions, which can create an instant bond of friendship or feeling of shared pain or understanding. If a child is bored day after day, a predator can make simple comments like \u201cTell me about it. There\u2019s never anything to do here. My parents are always with their friends.\u201d Or if a child says, \u201cI hate my mom she\u2019s such a nag,\u201d a predator can pose empathy with a comment such as, \u201cI can\u2019t wait until I\u2019m older and don\u2019t have to put up with my parents.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fishing.<\/strong> Predators are shrewd. The term \u201cfishing\u201d in the predator realm is different from the <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.internetsafety.com\/index.php\/2013\/05\/02\/have-you-taught-your-kids-about-the-dangers-of-catfishing\/\">\u201ccatfishing\u201d story<\/a> we posted a few weeks ago. Fishing is when a predator \u201cfishes\u201d for personal information from a child as a relationship is being built. This information can be about a child\u2019s family routine, sports activities, or their likes and dislikes. The more information a predator can \u201cfish\u201d from a child, the more ways he can manipulate that information to gain trust and access to the child. Predators \u201cfish\u201d by scanning social profiles, online conversations, photos\u2014and also by simply asking the child simple questions followed by more in-depth questions. Because a predator\u2019s mind is criminal in its thinking, a child can make an innocent comment online such as \u201cI can\u2019t wait to go see Cinderella this weekend.\u201d A predator can take that snippet of information, do a quick search, and figure out which high school is showing a production of Cinderella and\u2014viola\u2014the child has unwittingly divulged her location to the predator.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>In part II on Thursday this week, we will list a few powerful tips on how to coach your kids on specific ways to spot a predator and make sure they are both savvy and safe online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Have you noticed that commonplace words don\u2019t quite mean what they used to? It\u2019s a subtle but alarming shift&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":642,"featured_media":153246,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3359],"class_list":["post-25737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-safety"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Three Words Every Parent Needs to Know | McAfee Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; Have you noticed that commonplace words don\u2019t quite mean what they used to? It\u2019s a subtle but alarming shift when simple words such as \u201cgrooming,\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three Words Every Parent Needs to Know | McAfee Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Have you noticed that commonplace words don\u2019t quite mean what they used to? 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