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 Kennett Police Department Detective Lt. Tim Trowbridge, who is attached to the Bootheel Drug Task Force, leads a seminar about Internet sexual predators recently at the Malden Community Center. [Click to enlarge] |
Bootheel Drug Task Force agent (BDTF) and Kennett Police Department Detective Lt. Tim Trowbridge and Malden Police Department Chief Rod Dill Monday addressed the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA), Region 7, at the Malden Community Center.
A crowd of nearly 60 came to hear the officers speak with both students and teachers about Internet crimes, safety and police investigations.
The presenters offered a guide titled "What Are Signs That Your Child Might Be At Risk On-line?" which was prepared from actual investigations involving child victims, as well as investigations where law enforcement officers posed as children.
* Children spend large amounts of time on-line, especially at night. Most children that fall victim to computer-sex offenders spend large amounts of time on-line, particularly in chat rooms. They may go on-line after dinner and on the weekends. They may be latchkey kids whose parents have told them to stay at home after school. They go on-line to chat with friends, make new friends, pass time, and sometimes look for sexually explicit information. While much of the knowledge and experience gained may be valuable, parents should consider monitoring the amount of time spent on-line. Children on-line are at the greatest risk during the evening hours. While offenders are on-line around the clock, most work during the day and spend their evenings on-line trying to locate and lure children or seeking pornography.
* Pornography is discovered on childrens' computers.
Pornography is often used in the sexual victimization of children. Sex offenders often supply their potential victims with pornography as a means of opening sexual discussions and for seduction. Child pornography may be used to show the child victim that sex between children and adults is "normal." Parents should be conscious of the fact that a child may hide the pornographic files on diskettes from them. This may be especially true if the computer is used by other family members.
* Children receive phone calls from people parents don't know, or children place calls, sometimes long distance, to numbers parents don't recognize.
While talking to child victims on-line is a thrill for a computer-sex offender, it can be very cumbersome. Most want to talk to the children on the telephone. They often engage in "phone sex" with the children and often seek to set up an actual meeting for real sex. While a child may be hesitant to give out their home phone numbers, the computer-sex offenders might offer theirs. With caller ID, they can readily find out their victims' phone numbers. Some computer-sex offenders have even obtained toll-free 800 numbers, so their potential victims can call them without parents knowledge. Others tell children to call collect. Both of these methods result in the computer-sex offender retrieving victims' phone numbers.
* Children receive mail, gifts, or packages from someone parents don't know.
As part of the seduction process, it is common for offenders to send letters, photographs, and all manner of gifts to their potential victims. Computer-sex offenders have even sent plane tickets in order for the child to travel across the country to meet them.
* Children turn the computer monitor off or quickly change the screen on the monitor when parents enter the room.
Children looking at pornographic images or having sexually explicit conversations do not want parents to see it on the screen.
* Children become withdrawn from the family.
Computer-sex offenders work very hard at driving a wedge between children and their families, or at exploiting their relationship. They accentuate minor problems at home that the children might experience. Children may also become withdrawn after sexual victimization.
* Your child uses an on-line account belonging to someone else.
Even if you don't subscribe to an on-line service or Internet service, your child may meet an offender while on-line at a friend's house or the library. Most computers come pre-loaded with on-line and/or Internet software. Computer-sex offenders will sometimes provide potential victims with a computer account for communications with them.