Christmas Eve Meeting Between Marine and Teen Could Have Been Prevented
By Lindell Kay, The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.C.
Dec. 29–A Christmas Eve meeting between a 20-year-old Camp Lejeune Marine and 13-year-old Pittsburgh girl could have been prevented, authorities said.
Lance Cpl. Johnathan Plaisance was charged by Pittsburgh police with interfering with the custody of a child and child concealment. Police said he traveled to Pennsylvania to meet with the girl, spent the night with her in a motel room and boarded a bus back to North Carolina with her, according to online court records.
But Plaisance had been communicating online with the girl for several months, according to The Associated Press.
Police examined Plaisance and the girl’s online relationship through the family computer and the girl’s account on MySpace, a popular social networking Web site.
For the girl to not have told her parents about Plaisance is par for the course in Internet predator cases, authorities said.
One in seven youths between the ages of 10 and 17 has received unwanted sexual solicitations online, according to a recent survey conducted by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The same survey revealed one in three children has experienced unwanted exposure to sexual material on the Internet.
The survey also stated most children do not tell their parents about their online experiences.
“The Internet has created monsters for law enforcement,” Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said. “The technology is great, but so are the ramifications of what can be done with it.”
But caution and persistence on the parent’s part can help prevent a child from meeting an Internet predator, according to representatives with the N.C. Attorney General’s Office.
The N.C. State Bureau of Investigation and the N.C. Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force recommend parents take the following steps to avoid potentially dangerous Internet relationships:
–Avoid online profiles. Many Web sites offer users the opportunity to set up an online profile where they can provide information about themselves. However, this information can be accessed and used by predators.
–Control access to chat rooms. Adults who are seeking to exploit children spend countless hours in chat rooms. Many experts believe that chat rooms are not safe for children, particularly young children. Children who are allowed into chat rooms need additional supervision.
–Control instant messaging. Like e-mail and chat rooms, instant messaging can be used to communicate secretly. Children often use abbreviations and code — such as “POS” which means “parent over shoulder” — to change the course of the conversation and to keep parents from understanding online conversations.
–Guard photographs. Computers make it easy to send and share photographs, but it should be done carefully. Children should not send photos to anyone, including other children, without parental approval. Parents should also avoid posting photographs of children on the Internet.
–Keep screen names anonymous. Predators can use screen names to help them track down a child. Parents should make sure their child’s screen name does not include personal information such as name, home address or school name.
–Access child’s e-mail. Experts recommend that parents share an e-mail account with their child or maintain access to their child’s e-mail account and check it frequently. Parents might feel this is too intrusive, but its not. A computer is different from a diary or a journal. A journal contains private thoughts that are not communicated to others. However, e-mails, chatting and instant messaging are an open window to a child’s life, carrying information to and from their home.
–Place computers in a common area. Parents should place computers in a central room of the house, in order to monitor a child’s activity online. The computer screen should face out, into the room, so it is easy for everyone to see.
–Remind children computer use is not confidential. Children want to be treated as adults, and they feel entitled to privacy. But with a computer, parents can go too far in trying to respect a child’s privacy. Children should not have the expectation that everything they do on a computer will be considered personal and confidential.
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