Online Predators Waiting in Chatrooms
Online Predators Always Waiting in Chatrooms Jocelyn Maner on Online Predators (Columbia)-Patricia Hicks said, "I had no clue. I knew he had friends." But Hicks never imagined that her 17-year old son, Chris, met one of his friends in an online chatroom. It's a man that happens to be 36 years old. Hicks said, "My son said he didn't know he was that old he thought he was a teenager." She says he met the man on another friends computer, and the man has even called her home. She added, "I caught one conversation with him telling my son to come out and smoke marijuana with him and my son was telling him he didn't do that." Patricia's story is more common than you might think according to Capt. Chip Johnson. He's in charge of Sled's "Computer Crime Center." Johnson said, "Predators befriend the children. They do a great deal of work toward building trust with those individuals." Two investigators, in the center, conduct ongoing investigations on Internet predators who look for kids in South Carolina for sexual purposes. Johnson said, "We don't wait for cases to come in. We're looking for opportunities to go out and make those cases happen." First, they start by creating online profiles. Johnson said, "We go into that room. We maybe a child or we maybe an adult. It changes on a regular basis. We begin dialogue across the Internet usually culminating with a meeting taking place where we arrest the individual." And they've learned there is a type of child that predators look for. Johnson said, "They particularly look for children who may have low self-esteem and they'll take advantage of those types of things." Her focus now is protecting her son from becoming a prey. She searches SLED's Sexual Predator Site, making sure she knows who is living in her neighborhood. But she knows there are many more sexual offenders who aren't on these pages and maybe waiting in chatrooms. Johnson said, "My concern is him getting harmed either at school, after school or the person on the chatline actually meeting him and picking him up." Capt. Johnson says it's a concern every parent should have. Johnson said, "It certainly could go anywhere from death to both emotional and physical damage to the child." This mom's worst fear. Hicks said, "Him being murdered, and I'm getting a call that his body was found somewhere." Law Enforcement officials say parents can stay informed by doing just a few things: 1. Make sure the computer is not in your child's room. Put it in a common area, so you can supervise them online. 2. Show interest and look over your child's shoulder. 3. Know the people your children are talking to. 4. And determine what information your child can and cannot disclose online. http://www.wltx.com/news/news19.aspx?storyid=32915