**MUST READ**
NOTE: I'm not locking this entry.
Last year, I watched a "Dateline" special. They featured an online group that actively went after online predators. Dateline just did another show with this group up in my old stomping grounds of Fairfax County. My NOrthern VA friends have probably already heard about this due to Fairfax County being complete and total idiots.
Anyhow - this group is called Perverted-Justice.com. If you don't know about them, they are a group of individuals who pose as young children - 11 - 14 or so - and hang out in teen or other chatrooms, waiting for the predators to strike. It doesn't take long - more on that later.
I poked around their website, reading some of the chatlogs that they had posted. All you have to do is click on one or two of the logs posted on the frontpage. You'll get the idea.
I checked out the forums, posted, and joined in. I logged into Yahoo (yeah, that 18 year old rule is really working) as a 13 year old girl, went into a chatroom. I kid you not, within 20 seconds, I had ELEVEN chat invitations. Out of the 11 invites, 2 went away when I told them I was 13, 3 were actually kids. So, 11 minus 5 equals 6, right? Yep. 6 hung around. A couple of them were pretty weird so I iggied them. That left me with 4 screens up. These 'men' informed me that their ages were: 32, 36, 41 and 45.
I mentioned that I was 13 at least 2 or 3 times. Didn't matter one bit.
One invited me to view his webcam. I accepted and was greeted with the image of him standing in front of his cam with his 'winkie' in his hands.
After viewing the cam for about 5 seconds, he asked "What would you like to do with that?" and offered up some suggestions.
So - here's the deal. Do you have kids under 18 or siblings under 18? Do you have friends who have kids under 18? Yes?
Do you know exactly who they are chatting with?
Is the computer in a common room in the house where you can monitor?
Do you have any type of software on the computer that locks out certain websites?
If you answered no to any of these, then we've got some problems.
Go check out the perverted-justice.com website. Read. Learn. TALK to your children and don't let them brush you off either. Be honest with them. Miss the Dateline shows? You can go into the "PJ in the Media" forum and download them. WATCH THEM WITH YOUR CHILDREN.
Don't have children? Watch and learn and then share with those who do have kids.
Last year, I watched a "Dateline" special. They featured an online group that actively went after online predators. Dateline just did another show with this group up in my old stomping grounds of Fairfax County. My NOrthern VA friends have probably already heard about this due to Fairfax County being complete and total idiots.
Anyhow - this group is called Perverted-Justice.com. If you don't know about them, they are a group of individuals who pose as young children - 11 - 14 or so - and hang out in teen or other chatrooms, waiting for the predators to strike. It doesn't take long - more on that later.
I poked around their website, reading some of the chatlogs that they had posted. All you have to do is click on one or two of the logs posted on the frontpage. You'll get the idea.
I checked out the forums, posted, and joined in. I logged into Yahoo (yeah, that 18 year old rule is really working) as a 13 year old girl, went into a chatroom. I kid you not, within 20 seconds, I had ELEVEN chat invitations. Out of the 11 invites, 2 went away when I told them I was 13, 3 were actually kids. So, 11 minus 5 equals 6, right? Yep. 6 hung around. A couple of them were pretty weird so I iggied them. That left me with 4 screens up. These 'men' informed me that their ages were: 32, 36, 41 and 45.
I mentioned that I was 13 at least 2 or 3 times. Didn't matter one bit.
One invited me to view his webcam. I accepted and was greeted with the image of him standing in front of his cam with his 'winkie' in his hands.
After viewing the cam for about 5 seconds, he asked "What would you like to do with that?" and offered up some suggestions.
So - here's the deal. Do you have kids under 18 or siblings under 18? Do you have friends who have kids under 18? Yes?
Do you know exactly who they are chatting with?
Is the computer in a common room in the house where you can monitor?
Do you have any type of software on the computer that locks out certain websites?
If you answered no to any of these, then we've got some problems.
Go check out the perverted-justice.com website. Read. Learn. TALK to your children and don't let them brush you off either. Be honest with them. Miss the Dateline shows? You can go into the "PJ in the Media" forum and download them. WATCH THEM WITH YOUR CHILDREN.
Don't have children? Watch and learn and then share with those who do have kids.