What should you do if your child is communicating with a sexual predator?

Editor's note: This is the final installment of a three-part series that focuses on area law enforcement personnel educating small-town residents about Internet sexual predators. The initial installment was published Thursday. Part two was published Friday.

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 law-enforcement agents discussed options parents have regarding these crimes in a presentation called "What Should You Do If You Suspect Your Child Is Communicating With A Sexual Predator On-line?" and noted:

* Consider talking openly with your child about your suspicions. Tell them about the dangers of cyber-sex offenders.

* Review the content of your childrens' computers. If you don't know how, ask a friend, coworker, relative, or other knowledgeable person. Pornography or any kind of sexual communication can be a warning sign.

* Use the Caller ID service to determine who is calling your child. Most telephone companies that offer Caller ID also offer a service that allows you to block your number from appearing on someone else's Caller ID. Telephone companies also offer an additional service feature that rejects incoming calls that you block. This rejection feature prevents computer-sex offenders or anyone else from calling your home anonymously.

* Devices can be purchased that show telephone numbers that have been dialed from your home phone. Additionally, the last number called from your home phone can be retrieved provided that the telephone is equipped with a redial feature. You will also need a telephone pager to complete this retrieval. This is done using a numeric-display pager and another phone that is on the same line as the first phone with the redial feature. Using the two phones and the pager, a call is placed from the second phone to the pager. When the paging terminal beeps for you to enter a telephone number, you press the redial button on the first, or suspect, phone. The last number called from that phone will then be displayed on the pager.

* Monitor childrens' access to all types of live electronic communications regarding chat rooms, instant messages and Internet Relay Chat. Monitor your childrens' e-mail. Computer-sex offenders almost always meet potential victims via chat rooms. After meeting a child on-line, they will continue to communicate electronically often via e-mail.

Should any of the following situations arise in your household, via the Internet or on-line service, parents should immediately contact their local or state law enforcement agency, the FBI, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children:

* Children or anyone in the household has received child pornography;

* Your child has been sexually solicited by someone who knows that your

child is under 18 years of age;

* Your child has received sexually explicit images from someone that

knows your child is under the age of 18.

If one of these scenarios occurs, keep the computer turned off in order to preserve any evidence for future law enforcement use. Unless directed to do so by the law enforcement agency, you should not attempt to copy any of the images and/or text found on the computer.

Also, the presentation included information titled "What Can You Do To Minimize The Chances Of An On-line Exploiter Victimizing Your Child?"

* Communicate, and talk to your child about sexual victimization and potential on-line danger.

* Spend time with your children on-line. Have them teach you about their favorite on-line destinations.

* Keep the computer in a common room in the house, not in your childrens' bedrooms. It is much more difficult for computer-sex offenders to communicate with children when the computer screen is visible to a parent or another member of the household.

* Utilize parental controls provided by your service provider and/or blocking software. While electronic chat can be a great place for children to make new friends and discuss various topics of interest, it is also prowled by computer-sex offenders. Use of chat rooms, in particular, should be monitored regularly. While parents should utilize these mechanisms, they should not rely on them totally.

* Always maintain access to childrens' on-line accounts and randomly check their e-mails. Be aware that children could be contacted through the U.S. Mail. Be up front with kids about your access and reasons why.

* Teach children the responsible use of the on-line resources. There is much more to the on-line experience than chat rooms.

* Find out what computer safeguards are utilized by your childrens' schools, public libraries, and at the homes of childrens' friends. These are all places, outside your normal supervision, where kids might encounter on-line predators.

* Understand, even if your kids were willing participants in any form of sexual exploitation, that they are not at fault and are the victim. Offenders always bear the complete responsibility for their actions.

* Instruct children to never arrange face-to-face meetings with someone they met on-line; to never upload (post) pictures of themselves onto the Internet or on-line services to people they do not personally know; to never offer identifying information such as their names, home addresses, school names, or telephone numbers; to never download pictures from an unknown source, as there is a good chance there could be sexually explicit images; to never respond to messages or bulletin board postings that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, or harassing; and that whatever they are told on-line may or may not be true.