Congratulations to the Peachtree City Police Department for successfully pursuing online computer sex crimes against our children and a big thank-you for arresting 13 sexual predators in the past 18 months.
As parents we can often be tempted to think, “Not my child.” But law enforcement officials estimate that 50,000 predators are online at any given moment, with at least one in five kids (male and female) being solicited for sexual involvement with an adult.
Often the child thinks that he’s communicating with another teen in a chat room, especially at first. In reality, he is being seduced by a pedophile who, within just minutes, can deftly turn the conversation to sexual matters. The conversation can get explicit very quickly, and over time more and more depraved sexual requests are made.
A recent undercover investigative report by NBC’s “Dateline” about the prevalence of online solicitation of children found that “in most cases, the men ask for pictures of the young teens and then send pictures of themselves. Sometimes after the chat turns sexual, the man turns on his Web cam and exposes himself. Several men go as far as sending pornographic pictures, hoping to teach the inexperienced child about different sex acts [even bestiality and S & M].”
How do these men gain the confidence of their victims? They offer friendship (“I want to cuddle you and make you feel safe and loved and cared about”), stir up curiosity about sex, and use pornography to lower the child’s inhibitions.
“Dateline” requested the help of Perverted-Justice. These volunteers, while pretending to be children, engage in chat-room conversations in order to expose predators and gather evidence that can lead to convictions. “Dateline” provided an upscale house (set up with hidden cameras) in a suburb of Washington, D.C., to be the meeting place for the pedophile to have face-to-face contact with a 12-to-14-year old “child” claiming to be home alone.
It was shocking how many men (19 in 3 days) actually showed up at the “child’s” home with the intent of having sex with a minor. The men were caught on camera boldly entering the home and often bringing “presents” such as beer and pornography. One man even stripped naked in the garage before coming into the kitchen to meet the “child.”
This undercover investigation reveals that online pedophiles are not just all talk and no action.
Do these men look like monsters? Surprisingly, according to arrest records, the men preying on our kids are most likely married, working, middle-aged professionals (41 percent are 40 or older), men whom parents would consider trustworthy.
Here in PTC, a bus driver who is also a youth pastor asked “to hook up with” a 15-year-old girl at the girl’s home, but he was really communicating with an undercover officer. He told the “girl” that he wasn’t afraid of being caught coming to her home because, “I do it all the time.”
An engineer, a Georgia Tech student (who was arrested at the Peachtree City library), and a freelance humor columnist (who had been a youth minister) have also been arrested.
Just who were some of the 19 men who brazenly walked right into what they thought was the child’s own home during “Dateline’s” investigation? Men you’d probably never suspect of leading double lives. Men such as an emergency room doctor (50) who sees himself as just a Good Samaritan, a naval chief petty officer, and a special education teacher (54). An army sergeant (28), stationed at an intelligence and security command center, who had chatted online about bestiality with the “child,” claims when caught to have done nothing wrong. Finally, he admits that he’s “into fetishes that I know aren’t right.”
Watch “Dateline’s” online video of a rabbi (54) who is also a staff member for an organization that provides educational programs for Jewish high school students. Although he had sent pornographic pictures of himself, he also claims to have done nothing wrong. When a reporter, instead of a child, meets these men, they insist that they have actually come to “help” the lonely child and have no intention of doing anything illegal.
Then there’s the man who stripped naked in the garage before entering the kitchen. Even knowing that he will be “exposed” on national TV, he goes online the very next day and sets up a meeting at McDonald’s with another “child.” He was again caught on video by “Dateline” as he was waiting to meet the “child.”
Why are these men so confident? Because their chance of being caught is very slim (unless they happen to contact an undercover police officer, such as the one here in PTC, while chatting online). Also, the Internet has “removed the societal stigma that kind of kept people in check,” according to a former U.S. customs agent. Fear of punishment isn’t much of a deterrent either since at least 22 percent of the cases, on average, are dismissed prior to prosecution. Only half of the convicted offenders are incarcerated for any length of time, and only 75 percent become registered sex offenders.
How many offenders are prosecuted here in Fayette County, I wonder? I read in The Citizen about the arrests but seldom read about sentencing. The only sentence that I was able to find was that of freelance humor columnist Billy Murphy (45).
Arrested in 2003, he was sentenced to two years in prison for violating the computer pornography and child exploitation prevention act.
He had been involved in “an ongoing, extended relationship” with a 13-year-old PTC middle school student, police said. Murphy must register as a sex offender and will serve eight years on probation after leaving prison.
Although Police Chief Murray has said about child sex offenders, “We will request prosecution to the fullest extent of the law,” the maximum sentence really is 20 years, which, I think, is a small price to pay for such a heinous crime.
If you still doubt the severity of the problem of online predators after viewing “Dateline’s” video, log on to almost any Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel. “You’re unlikely to last 60 seconds without being propositioned,” says Parry Aftab, author of “A Parent’s Guide to the Internet,” who also runs WiredSafety.org.
What can parents do? It’s our responsibility to protect our children by putting computers in open areas, not in kids’ bedrooms, because “a combination of too much privacy, too much technology at a sexually curious age can really spell disaster,” according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
We need to know what our children are doing online and talk with them about their vulnerability. “Don’t talk to strangers” (chat rooms are full of strangers) and “never give out personal information” is still good advice.
Vote for tough judges and prosecutors who will enforce the existing laws to the full extent of the law (long prison sentences, not probation) and for legislators who will make the necessary laws to protect our children and punish pedophiles. Stringent pornography laws need to be enforced because two-thirds of all offenders possess graphic child pornography depicting children between the ages of 6 and 12 (but some even younger than 3) being raped and tortured.
Write to Gov. Perdue and your legislators, asking them to enact a version of “Jessica’s Law” that establishes a minimum 25-year sentence and requires paroled sex offenders to wear a GPS monitoring device. Go to billoreilly.com for an e-mail that you can easily send.
To see the eye-opening six-part video captured by “Dateline” in 2005 and to read the story and tips on how to protect your children, go to “Dateline’s” Web site (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9927253). Perverted-Justice put all of the men’s pictures and the entire chat logs on its Web site (perverted-justice.com).
“Dateline” has done another similar investigation in Southern California that will air on Friday, Feb. 3, at 9 p.m. This time, 51 predators, some of whom have already been convicted of sex crimes against minors, show up with the intention of committing another crime against a young teen “home alone.”
For an additional investigative story about child sexual predators, Web cams, and the disgusting world of chat rooms, see the 12/19/05 article in “The New York Times.”
Gayla Conley
Peachtree City, Ga.