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Two news events last week probably slipped right past you. First, "Alicia's Law" was defeated in the House of Delegates. Alicia's Law, as many know, was named for a woman who was sexually assaulted when she was 13 by an online sexual predator from Virginia.
The law would've provided money for more investigators and create three forensic computer labs. These labs and investigators would have helped law enforcement agencies in Virginia go after more than 19,000 computers in Virginia where hard-core child pornography is being stored and shared. Officials say they don't have the resources to go after them. Another bill, identical to the Alicia’s Law, is awaiting approval for funding in the Senate. The other headline you may have missed, was run Friday by EverythingNRV.com. and It read, "Radford Man Sentenced For Soliciting A Juvenile By E-Mail". This man was a 23-year-old person who thought he was meeting a 14-year-old female he met on the Internet. This one was caught, but there are many more who aren't. Many people - parents including many here in the New River Valley, believe Internet child predators are pretty much restricted to the larger cities and other areas of the U.S. A recent MSNBC program has been alerting people to the fact that online child predators are a problem everywhere and just how easy it is for children to become the target of one of these predators. As the Internet and chat lines grow, so does the number of cases in Montgomery County. Montgomery County Commonwealth Attorney Brad Finch sees this as a growing problem that his agency is battling hard. "The growth of these cases in the NRV is basically growing at the same rate you see everywhere. As more people use the Internet, the more these types of crimes are going to happen."
Investigators acknowledge these cases sometimes require the work of several agencies in different jurisdictions as predators could be hundreds of miles away, but could be making plans to travel to the NRV to "hook up" with someone they have arranged a meeting with on a chat line. Investigators say most of the cases can be stopped before they start if the parents are engaged in knowing what their children are doing on the computer.
"The first line of defense is the parents", said Finch. "We need the parents to take a more active role when it comes it seeing what their children are doing on the Internet", he said. Finch and other authorities suggest that Internet monitoring become just one more element of raising kids. Just as parents should always know the people their children hang out with in-person, they need to know whom their children are talking to online. Finch said, "there are inexpensive programs parents can purchase to keep up with their child's activity online". Most all we spoke with agreed with Finch - parents need to take an active role in where their children go on the Internet. Schools systems, such as the Montgomery County Public School system, are taking an active role informing parents of the dangers of not knowing. While there are no statistics to support the assertion, there are those who believe the problem is bigger than what most people would believe but some parents fear their child's name could be identified in the public. One person who asked not to be identified stated, "I had a situation that occurred where the parent simply wanted the contact with his teenage daughter to stop. He did not want to make a big deal of it, did not want to go to authorities, he just wanted us to make the gentleman stop talking to his daughter online". Finch said, "we do everything in our power to keep the child's name out of the proceedings, and the media in this area has been very cooperative with that. All of our prosecutors are sensitive to that, but we can not guarantee we can keep their child's name private." Even with more resources and money, the Internet child predator will be out there trying to connect with your child online. And in the case of Internet predators, the sex offender registry is virtually useless because he or she could be anywhere in the world surfing the net for children. Social networking sites like MYSpace and Facebook encourage visitors to do the very thing the authorities are advising against. Children post pictures and other private information on these sites in order to connect with people but far too often the person they connect with is a predator who has more than a casual chat in mind. The Internet's ability to create global social networking makes it almost impossible to track these individuals. If you have knowledge or suspect your child is engaging in inappropriate conversations with someone online, Finch suggests that the parent contact their local law enforcement officials or the State Police. "Usually, this is where the investigation starts", said Finch." We work closely with all of the law enforcement agencies and stay abreast of these investigations", he added. But the cost of these investigations can very high because there is a need for more forensic computer labs. Finch acknowledged that there are too few making the process long and expensive. In the New River Valley, grant money and county funds have been secured to detect online sexual predators. Our own David Grimes recently talked with law enforcement officials and got a first-hand look at the ways local law enforcement is fighting back. That story next week, as we continue our look into sexual predators on the Internet here in the New River Valley.
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