sure but I am just 15
ok..you ok with my age?
sure
This is how it begins. An older man asks a girl to chat and continues even after she tells him her age.
The above conversation is an actual chat log between an undercover Floyd County police officer and a suspect.
Later in the conversation, he asks her if she is in the ninth or tenth grade.
“My age doesn’t bother you?” he asks.
“Nope,” the girl replies.
About one in four children who get online regularly are exposed to unwanted sexual exploitation, according to the Crimes Against Children Research Center. And about a fourth of those will not tell their parents, the center said.
Online child predators cross demographic, social and racial lines, police say.
The Floyd County Police Department is hoping to soon join with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in fighting online predators.
Sgt. Gary Conway is working on an application to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a GBI task force that targets Internet crimes against children, and hopes to be an official member by the beginning of next year.
“The Internet is the devil’s spawn when it comes to kids and predators,” said Sgt. Teri Davis, who works juvenile crimes with Floyd County police. “There’s just so much out there.”
While this man was supposedly honest about his age, many online predators pose as teenagers so that they can get them interested, said Conway, of the Floyd County Police Department.
“These guys know what to ask like, ‘What time do your parents sleep so you can get online?’” Conway said.
Online sexual predators used to frequent chatrooms.
Now they are preying on popular sites such as Facebook and MySpace, he said.
Their targets could be anywhere but are often not in the predator’s local area.
“If (your child) is talking to someone from out of state, it’s a good possibility it’s not a kid,” Conway said.
I am thinking that I like your smile in your pic.
And that I would like seeing more.b;-)
More what
Of you
Your breasts
It took the predator just an hour to ask to see the “girl” naked, according to the chat transcript. But often it’s more than just wanting to see a picture.
Predators will arrange for a meeting. Sometimes, they don’t get who they hope to see.
A few years ago Floyd County police officers arrested a man in a sting operation who had a video camera with him when he was arrested, Conway said.
Parents should know what their child is doing online, Davis said. But parents should never try to trap the predators on their own, she said.
Call the police if you believe your child is talking to a predator.
Sexting a problem among young teens, police say
Some of the most graphic images children see are not coming from online predators but from other children, police say.
Sexting, sending naked pictures through a cell phone, is a real problem with tweens and teenagers.
“Lots of young kids are taking (nude) pictures of themselves,” said Sgt. Teri Davis with the Floyd County Police Department. “The majority of them are 13 to 16.”
It’s in all the schools but is most prevalent in middle school, she said.
“The boys are having bets as to who can get the most pictures,” Davis said. “And it’s all consensual. They are doing it to each other.”
I wonder if someone said that when the printing press got to rolling with magazines. Oh and the telephone, TV. Ain't that what they called Elvis's moves?
While we all, those of higher morals, can despise people that prey on children I just wonder who gets off the most in these cop and predator scenarios? The predator or the cop posing as an innocent child. Then the same article addresses teens sexting and I only wonder about the innocent part.
cubesmith wrote: "And yet this article said nothing of HOW to help parents monitor what their children do on the internet."
"Parents should know what their child is doing online, Davis said.But parents should never try to trap the predators on their own, she said."
Well, cubesmith, what sort of help would we expect coming from them when they say "parents should never try to trap the predators"?
Parents need to be doing more of that anyway. If they want to prevent their kids from visiting certain sites or from being online at a certain time, then they need to learn how to do that and what programs can help.