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Children being assaulted by men they’ve met on the Internet – these stories continue to make national headlines. Many parents already know that sexual predators use the web. What they don’t know is how many predators there are… or how quickly they can find children.

Kylie was 13 when she met 47-year-old Stanley Sadler on the Internet. “We just talked about my father, and how home life was going,” she says.

Soon Kylie agreed to meet Sadler – in person. “I met him in a public place because I wasn’t totally stupid,” she recalls. “I did get into his car though, because I didn’t think we were going to go anywhere. I thought we were just going to talk.”

Kylie says Sadler drove her to a secluded parking lot. “He started getting odd,” she says, “just like more distant and more touchy feely, and I was just like, ‘Hey that’s not cool.’ And then he, like, threw me in the back and raped me.”

Police say Internet predators can be found in almost every chat room on the web.

“I can tell you it’s like going to a big, empty field and putting a big plate of ice cream on a blanket and walking away for an hour – and coming back and finding out how many ants and flies are there,” says James Murray, the Police Chief of Peachtree City, Georgia.

Heather Lackey is an undercover police officer. On the web, she pretends to be a child and then waits. Within minutes, even seconds, someone in the chat room approaches her. “He’s just now asked me, ’would you let me touch you if I was there?’” says Lackey, reading off the computer monitor.

Encounters like this one, she says, are why kids should not have a computer in their bedrooms. “The first thing [the Internet predator] started asking me: ‘is anyone around, is anyone there?’” says Lackey. “Of course they don’t want to get caught, they don’t want Mom or Dad to walk into the room.”

As for Kylie – she hopes other kids will learn from her mistake. “It’s not okay to put yourself in the situation that I put myself in,” she says, “because common sense tells you, ‘Wow, you shouldn’t do this.’ And even though common sense intervenes, you still do it.”

Experts say every child is vulnerable online, but the kids who become victims have a few things in common. They may be lonely, unsupervised, or looking for someone to understand them. Police say predators are able to manipulate their victims by offering sympathy and pretending to listen.

What We Need To Know

• Although the Internet can be a dangerous place, parents should not become overly fearful and ban kids from using the computer. Realize your child’s future success depends on being savvy with technology. (Kathleen Fitzgerald, Director, CyberCamps)




• Parents need to become involved in their children’s Internet use. Go online with your child. Teach them to make smart decisions online. (Kathleen Fitzgerald, Director, CyberCamps)




• Parents simply must be smarter than their children when it comes to the use of technology. Install filters that block kids from viewing inappropriate material on the Internet. If necessary, parents should sign up for computer classes. (Harold W. Phipps, Computer Forensics Investigator, The Norcross Group)




• Parents should go into a chat room and pretend to be a 13-year-old girl. Many will be surprised at the volume of sexual messages they attract.(Heather Lackey, Undercover Officer, Peachtree City Police Department)




• Many kids do not tell their parents when they receive unwanted sexual messages because they fear the parents will restrict their access to the computer. Make it clear to kids they can come to you if strangers approach them on the Internet. Report any inappropriate messages to law enforcement. (Kathleen Fitzgerald, Director, CyberCamps)




• Chat rooms are among the most dangerous places on the web. (James Murray, Police Chief, Peachtree City, GA)




• Sexual predators often use online profiles – or web pages where children post their name, picture, and information about their hobbies and interests – to find their victims. (Joe Rosen, Former FBI Agent)




• Not every sexual predator wants to arrange an in person meeting. Some are looking for the sexual gratification of talking to a child via the Internet. This means the child is in danger of getting their sexual education from a pedophile, or becoming interested in sex at an early age. Often predators will start by sending a child pornographic photos. When the child gets used to seeing these photos, the subject of sex no longer seems so shocking. (James Murray, Police Chief, Peachtree City, GA)




• Often sexual predators will lie and say they are in their early twenties. Once the predator has gained a child’s trust, they will often admit to being much older. (Heather Lackey, Undercover Officer, Peachtree City, GA)




• Having a web camera exposes children to even more danger. If children send provocative pictures of themselves to predators, those photos will likely be circulated to others. (James Murray, Police Chief, Peachtree City)

Resources

• Wired Safety, an online safety, education and help group




• i-SAFE America, Internet safety education group




• Federal Bureau of Investigation (Innocent Images National Initiative)

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