A cautionary tale

PARENTS will be the first to empathise with the horror of a Cape Town couple who discovered their 15-yearold daughter minutes away from being lured into a world of fanaticism and terrorism.

Fortunately, our security agencies earned their crust on Sunday by stopping her at Cape Town International Airport as she boarded her first flight in a series, to join the Islamic State.

Apart from the shock of finding that their teen had a secret life, there were other eye-openers – such as the remarkable freedoms she enjoyed in her tender years: transferring money to an unknown party, and booking a flight, and a business class one at that, to start her journey to the Middle East.

When the perils of the internet and cyber communication started becoming evident years ago, the focus was largely on sexual predators.

That is obviously still a huge concern, but Sunday’s IS incident followed others elsewhere targeting young people.

Internet stranger danger has now taken on a very dark hue of international mayhem.

The victim’s father, and the State Security ministry, have issued warnings to parents generally to be on the lookout for their children.

The essence of their pleas is for constant vigilance, particularly of your children’s activities on social media

THE THRUST, also, is that just because your loved one is safely snuggled with you at home, does not mean strangers are not among you. Eerie and paranoid as this sounds, the 15-year-old’s tale is stark evidence of this.

The online predators are propagating now, succeeding in recruiting the vulnerable and impressionable to their wicked causes. The naïveté of youth is a fertile field for exploitation, as evidenced by new recruits who are popping up all over the place, from the UK and US to Australia. Why would we think South African youth are any less vulnerable ?

There are no formulas for successful parenting. But constant, easy communication is a starting point. It could provide the first alert to jarring notes that require further vigilance.