Predators

[Juliane55]

In light of the appalling current exposés on paedophile predators Is it only me or are there other members out there concerned about the number of clearly single women who post their profile pictures of themselves and young children? As a mother and a grandmother I am deeply disturbed that these (mainly hosts) do not consider who they may be invitingly into their homes.

As a leading “hotel group” I am stunned that AirBnb have not taken astringent steps to protect the more naive of us regarding this obvious danger. 

[Sarah977 · Accepted solution]

@Juliane55  I'm an older single woman with 3 grown daughters, and I can tell you I'm also a bit concerned when I see hosts posting profile pics of themselves with their young children. It's one thing if the place they list is a separate dwelling, I wouldn't be worried about that, but if they host in their home, or the kids might be playing outside near an Airbnb dwelling on the property, personally I wouldn't include my children in the photo. I think hosts do it to show guests that it's a family environment, to attract other families, and not have any guests who actually are bothered by children show up and be surprised and irritated. But they could just state in the listing description that they have kids, so not to expect quiet or not to see some toys scattered around. I don't think a sexual predator would be inclined to scour through listing descriptions looking for the mention of children, they would look at the profile photos.

Honestly, I would never have hosted in my home at all when my girls were young (maybe when they were babies or toddlers and always under my supervision, or only accept female guests). It doesn't seem to me like an environment you would want to invite strangers into.

[Manasui0]

I put manasui's pic on my listing.. 

heehhehe 

is the fuel of every thing is done.. 

I don't think many people realise it.. hehhehehe

[Juliane55]

Sarah, I love your response perfectly put.

hopefully just reading your post will alert women.

[Manasui0]

is it not our responsibility to protect our self and get support through Airbnb?? I really don't know..

at my previous part time jobs we had a guest who jumps payments after staying a month with out payment, they were suppose to be royalties from certain country and checked out.. the credit line was good..  it resulted with police official.. there are resources you can make your self safe with out just relying on your marketing platform...

worst case scenario you have to deal with.. probably the best decision is to RUN!! all the support then will be activated then.. don't worry too much

may be I'm just use to it.. but I really don't know.. I just take care of my self every thing else is there, just need to be creative and use it with in your resource.. 

[Anonymous]

@Juliane55  Serial sexual predators tend to have two things in common:

1. They're trusted and protected from scrutiny by their peers due to community status, family relationships, or institutional authority.

2. Their position gives them a degree of power that makes it easier to coerce, intimidate, and silence their victims.

It's not impossible that a predator would choose to be an Airbnb guest, but staying in a family's home does not facilitate the grooming of child victims very well because neither of those circumstances apply. Having a stranger in the household is always going to have some risk involved, but not nearly as much as sending your kids to church or Bible camp. 

[Juliane55]

Andrew I agree with you 100%.

I also appreciate and note your watchdog approach to this subject/threat. 

My concern is still,

hosts advertising spaces showing pictures of children alongside them.

Further , there are countless repeat stays ,monthly and weekly which renders the "stranger" theory moot..

[Anonymous]

@Juliane55  Yes, millions of people also put images of their children all over Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc  -  and I tend to find this ethically murky, since children may not understand how much their image and identity are publicly exposed enough to meaningfully consent to it. Plenty of adults don't, either.

But also, I don't feel it's up to us to determine about how other people do their parenting. I do think it's necessary for in-home hosts to disclose some basic details about how many people are in the household and what kind of environment it is; for example, as I guest I would prefer to stay in an exclusively adult household rather than one with kids running around or babies crying, so this would be relevant to me when booking. 

There are plenty of situations where a whole family is engaged in the experience of in-home hospitality, and in those cases I see no problem with portraying that accurately in the host portrait. This does not hinder the parents' ability to screen their guests, or to supervise their kids when guests are present. 

Child abuse is a real and persistent problem, but the paranoia and stranger-danger-panic unleashed by media sensationalism is not the solution.