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10 responses so far ↓

• nepspeed82
  Wrote: May 31, 2006 at 3:36 pm

  These guys are really scary. I don’t know what goes on inside their minds why they like molesting young kids and are willing to go great lengths just to get what they want. And that makes it even scarier. I think parents should watch their kids more nowadays.

• Panda
  Wrote: May 31, 2006 at 9:55 pm

  I hope this guy gets caught! But more than that, it makes me that much more cautious about my son being online. He’s never been allowed to go on chat programs. We use software that prevents him from logging onto one of those programs.

• Rose
  Wrote: May 31, 2006 at 10:16 pm

  Panda, Doesn’t your son use MySpace though?

  nepspeed82, I agree with you there. Children & Teens should not be on the computer unsupervised.

• Steve Reichard
  Wrote: Jun 1, 2006 at 12:32 am

  This is so very sad more and more of these things keep happening, they need to be stopped predators like this guy need to be put in jail where they belong.

  I read the article and I hope they catch that guy too, he needs to be in jail and children should definetely not be on the net without supervision.

• hedgehogman
  Wrote: Jun 1, 2006 at 12:58 am

  I agree with Steve, that preds must be gone forever…
  Well right now Im thinking about the usefull of internet for children. But now I will re think again.
  I think I must add about parent or teacher supervise there

• Rose
  Wrote: Jun 1, 2006 at 6:53 am

  I think that parents need to be aware of what their children are doing on the net. A study found that 1 in 5 kids ages 10-17 years had been sexually solicited online. This is sad.

  I’m hoping in a few weeks in Canada, the Conservative government will succeeded in getting Parliament to raise the age of consent to 16.

• quietvictimsvr
  Wrote: Jun 4, 2006 at 2:52 pm

  Hi,
  I know many of you are from Canada, or other countries, but here in the United States there is a program called “Dateline.” Once a week, during the month of May, Dateline carried a program, which was nationally shown. This program specifically targeted sexual predators online, who try to meet under aged children for the purpose of having sex with them. Dateline went to many different locations in the United States, big and small communities. They set up a house, an actor of 19, who was at the house acting as the under aged child. The authorities waited outside, after these men showed up at this house, the dateline commentator were there to talk with then. These men had talked with people from “Perverted Justice” an online community set up to trap predators who want to meet with under aged children. What stunned the authorities was that it didn’t make any difference the size of the community; there were plenty of predators to go around. After talking to the Dateline commentator, the police were waiting outside to arrest the men who showed up at the house.

  The statistics are staggering with 50,000 predators online at anyone time. I copied every one of these programs, to show people if they wanted, to see how widespread this is.

  Some of these men were teachers, Rabbi’s, among others who were in positions where they worked with teens. One man actually came to the house, where he thought he was going to meet a young teen to have sex with and brought his son who must have been three or four.

  If I had a teenager, the computer used, would be in the living room where what they were doing could be monitored. There is now way I would allow them to have a computer in their room. It is just too dangerous.

  Merriam

• Rose
  Wrote: Jun 4, 2006 at 3:38 pm

  Merriam, I’ve seen all the episodes of Dateline’s” To catch a predator.” I’ve also blogged about it. I’m also well aware who Perverted Justice is. Michelle Collins (director of the exploited child unit for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) and Julie Posey don’t have much positive to say about them.

  You can find Julie’s link in my sidebar.

  JUlie says, and I quote:

  “These Perverted-Justice.com investigator wannabes think it’s so easy to go into a chat room and just start talking, and for them it is, because they have no goals in mind other than humiliating someone and getting media attention,” said Julie Posey, a Colorado activist who has worked with police in chat-room stings for eight years and helped convict more than 70 men.

  I myself wonder how much good that perverted justice is doing. You might want to read this article. http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=260587&page=1

  The Dateline episode is upsetting just the same.

  Nonetheless my dear friend, you’re correct. The internet has become a pedophiles playground and a computer hooked to the net should not be in a child’s bedroom.

  I’ve been following news stories of online predators for three years now and doing what I can to educarte parents & teens.

  This is one subject that I feel strong about.

  My children use the internet in the livingroom, where I or Shawn see them.

  Rose

• Beans
  Wrote: Jun 8, 2006 at 4:31 pm

  Hello everyone.

  I have just read all of your blogs and I agree with you, mostly. I am a 17 year old girl, and I just thought that it might be interesting to share my opinions on the internet with you.

  I am an average teenage girl, and I use the internet almost daily. But unlike most teens I dont use myspace or live journal or go on any chat rooms. I don’t see the point in meeting random people off of the internet, even though some of my best friends do. Even if I wanted to use myspace or live journal, I dont think I would have the time. I have to ballance school, my part time job, playing sports, homework, and spending time with my family and friends. I usually only use the internet to talk to my friends, listen to music, or researching school projects. It was research for a school project that brought me to this site.

  I’m doing a seminar in my grade 11 Canadian Law class, and my group and I decided to present on computer crimes, but mainly internet stalking. Since the begining of our research, we have realized how simple it is to trick people over the internet. We decided to do an experiment. We all use msn, and it is the most popular way of talking to our friends. We made up a new e-mail address, and added some of our friends. We are saving all of the conversations and seeing how much personal information they will give out about themselves. We know if they are telling the truth because we know who they are, and we already know all of the answers to the questions that we are asking them. Our teacher is amazed by how open they are with someone who they dont even know. We have seen how easy it is for teens to trust people on the internet, and it has made us all much more cautious.

  I agree that teens should be monitored, but not in any extreme sence. I dont see the need for anyone to be going onto chat rooms, so I agree that they should be banned from the use of teens. I used to go on them once in a while because I would always see my older sister and brother on them and I thought that they were cool, and I thought it would be a good way to meet people. Then I realized that there was really no reason for it, because I would always run out of things to talk about with people, and they would live no where near me, so there was no point in me talking to them. I dont see why people are so keen on using the internet to meet people.

  I usually only talk to people who I know, but I often e-mail people who i barely ever see. MSN is just a real easy way to stay in touch with people who live in places far away. I talk to people who live far away from me every day. It is so simple, just the click of a button and there they are. I like it because it helps me to stay in touch with friends that I’ve made at bowling school and other places. Chatting on the internet isnt as bad as it’s made out to be. I only use MSN, and I know that there are various other programs that work in the same way.

  My family’s computer is in the living room, so there is always alot of traffic going through the area. Having people around often and my mom checking on me on and off have helped me to use the internet responsibly. But I also believe that teens need to be educated on all of the cases of internet luring and stalking, and they should be educated on how easy it is to do. I dont feel the need to post alot of personal information about myself on the internet. I am happy with the friends that I have. When I want to meet new people, I meet them in person, like at school or bowling or hockey or other social events. I think I am fairly careful about using the internet, but I really think that more teens need to be made more aware.

  I think this is a very important issue, and it’s getting out of control way too fast. Things need to be done, but it has to be a group effort from people all around the world.

  J.S.

• Rose
  Wrote: Jun 8, 2006 at 6:01 pm

  Beans, well I’m glad that you found my blog. I agree that parents and schools should be teaching children how to protect themselves on the internet. It’s nice to see that some teens- like yourself are using the internet appropriately.

  As a parent it’s shocking to see just how much information kids were willing to reveal to an online stranger. What is as shocking is that many parents have no knowledge that their children are on websites like MySpace. I tend to think today’s parent refuses to think that this could happen to their child, is not internet savvy or thinks that by monitoring their child that they are invading their privacy. However, it is not an invasion because as a parent, we have a responsibility to protect our children.

  The best way to ensure that a child/teen is safe online is to know who their friends are, no what their doing, educate them and learn about any service that they use.

  While the internet is a great medium- there is a dangerous side to it too. It’s good to hear that your computer is in the family room, where there is always alot of traffic going through the area.

  Teens are more likely to get into more trouble when using the computer from their bedroom or other areas unsupervised.

  I’d be very interested in hearing how your seminar turns out.

  You appear to be a smart educated young lady. It shows that your parents have done a wonderful job in raising you.

  Feel free to drop by my blog anytime.

  Rose