Why teens are telling strangers their secrets online

LZ Granderson: It's now normal for teens to befriend strangers online, share explicit imagery of themselves.

Granderson says in the past few decades , we inadvertently built a complex web of risk that exposes young people to grooming and exploitation at a massive scale.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children began tracking reports of online enticement of children for sexual acts in 1998 .

A new survey of 1,000 teens who disclosed sexual abuse revealed the extent to which social media is used to prey on youth.

Loneliness and anxiety surged, perhaps related to widespread device use.

Some teens grow up feeling like a composite of what they've seen online, rather than their own person.

Social media also lets teens know when they've been excluded, or how their life doesn't measure up to peers'.

The sad reality for teens and young adults is that they actually yearn for meaningful in-person relationships with their peers.

Predators reinforce the idea that a teen they're talking to is very mature, a form of validation they crave.

Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab director noticed that after students returned to campus after the Covid-19 pandemic, they complained how difficult it was to meet people.