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Chat not Scream |
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Cyber Space predators are a rapidly growing breed - how can a teen stay safe and sound?
In August of 2000, a 13 year old girl was threatened in "Scream"
style by an online "friend" she had been chatting with for only 2 weeks. The
person who threatened her had tracked down her real name, address and phone
number using some of the things she told him in chat and the information she had
listed in her user profile. It seems the two of them used the same Internet
Service Provider (ISP) which made the task of tracing her real identity that
much easier.
This came just 5 weeks after another Canadian girl, a 15 year old, was
lured from her home by an online "friend" she thought was another teen. Her friend
turned out to be 28 year old Jason Wright, an American wanted in 5 states
(Washington, Oregon, California, Ohio and Texas) for
similar abduction attempts. He was caught thanks to some quick thinking neighbors
who made special note of an unusual van parked in the girl's driveway in the middle of the
day. They took down the plate number and when it was determined that the girl was
missing, alerted the police who were able to stop the van as it boarded a ferry.
The girl was inside, shaken but unharmed. Wright was annoyed and unremorseful.
All of this is far from unusual. In fact, statistics show that internet predators
are a rapidly growing bunch with the World Wide Web becoming a new hunting ground for
pedophiles, some of who access the net while still incarcerated! While there have been
no known successful cyber kidnappings there have been several instances of molestation, rape,
and attempted abduction.
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