Keep your kids (and grandkids) safe on the Internet

The sentencing last week of a Belgrade man who stalked a
14-year-old girl and sent crude pictures of himself to her on the
Internet is a good reminder about how dangerous our alter world
online can be.

Rayne Wolery, 30, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison
for his attempted sexual exploitation of a child in person and over
the Internet. He also will be on probation for 10 years after his
release, and will have to register as a sex offender under the
sentence handed down by Senior U.S. District Judge Charles
Lovell.

While Wolery’s crime was in no way the fault of the victim or
her family, and will no doubt have lasting impressions, there are
measures parents can take to ensure this type of crime isn’t
perpetuated again.

As great as emerging technology is for convenience and personal
connectivity, it does not come without its own dangers. From social
networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and others to online chat
rooms and instant messaging devices, any bit of information can be
disseminated quickly and repeatedly and with enduring
consequences.

All children, no matter their age or tech savviness, need
direction from their parents to guide and protect them. The more a
parent knows how to educate and protect a child the better. Because
let’s face it, we can’t all be there to parent our children all the
time.

Here are some proven Internet safety techniques that can keep
you on top of the potential problem before it arises.

• Post clear and simple house rules on or near the monitor, and
set consequences for not following them.

• Check out software that can help monitor children’s Internet
usage or block access to certain sites.

• Always read a Web site’s privacy policy before giving any
personal information. Also make sure a Web site offers a secure
connection before giving away personal or financial
information.

• Check the family computer browser history to see where your
kids have been. If the browser is empty, that’s a clue the kids
have been deleting it so you can’t see what sites they’ve
visited.

• Be familiar with the accounts your kids are using, including
the account names and passwords so you can access the accounts.
Remember, this is not spying!

• Be aware of what your kids are doing with their cell phones.
Look at the phone history, text messages and call lists. If the
phone has Internet access, monitor it as you would the desktop or
laptop computer.

• Talk to your child about what personal information is and why
you should never give it to people online.

• Talk to your child about never meeting in person with anyone
they first “met” online.

• Talk to your child about what to do if they see something that
makes them feel scared, uncomfortable or confused.

Show them how to turn off the monitor and emphasize that it’s
not their fault if they see something upsetting. Remind children to
tell a trusted adult if they see something that bothers them
online.

• If you suspect online stalking or sexual exploitation of a
child, report it to the local law-enforcement agency. The National
Center for Missing & Exploited Children has a system for
identifying online predators and child pornographers and
contributing to law-enforcement investigations. It’s called the

CyberTipline. Leads forwarded to the site will be acknowledged
and shared with the appropriate law-enforcement agency for
investigation.

GREENSBORO — Becky, a 13-year-old girl, was home alone and logged
into a Yahoo! music chat room one morning in February.Within
seconds, an instant message popped up on her screen:
gothamsdarkknight2003:hi
Becky: hey
gothamsdarkknight2003: asl (age, sex, location)
Becky: 13f ... US u?
gothamsdarkknight2003: 33/m horny
Becky: k ...
gothamsdarkknight2003: wanna (expletive) me?

A minute later, seven message boxes are on her screen, all from men claiming to be
grown-ups.At five minutes, a man in his 40s who says he’s in
Kansas City, Mo., sends her pornographic pictures, wondering if she had
“tried anything like that before.”The men want to know what
Becky is wearing, her bra size, whether she’s seen male genitalia or had
sex before.Within 10 minutes, she gets invitations to view two
Web cams. Both show men performing sexual acts on themselves.Becky
isn’t real. She’s Detective C.L. Overcash, a member of the Piedmont
Internet Crimes Against Children task force.The group was formed
about a year ago from area sheriff’s offices to investigate online
sexual predators and the trade of child pornography.“I could have
easily been the real 13- or 14-year-old girl who had a way to make it
to a meeting location,” said Overcash, a deputy with the Guilford County
Sheriff’s Office.“Say I did want to meet this guy and have sex
with him. It all could have happened while my dad is still at work.”It
used to be the playground, schools or churches where predators sought
children out.“In today’s world, it’s the Internet,” Overcash
said. “The boogeyman is real, and he lives on the Internet.”

Task force makes impact
It’s been a little more than a year
since the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office received about $476,000 from
the U.S. Department of Justice to create the Piedmont Internet Crimes
Against Children task force.Deputies from Guilford, Alamance,
Forsyth, Randolph and Rockingham counties make up the task force, one of
61 similar groups throughout the country.“A lot of our
offenders are not here. Law enforcement is no longer the 'round up the
usual suspects down the street,’” said Randy Jones , spokesman for the
Alamance County Sheriff’s Office.“Crime is not localized anymore.
It’s highly mobile and because of technology ... it crosses state lines
and you’ve got (to collaborate) to address it.”They’ve made more
than 40 arrests on 430-plus charges that have led to more than 25
successful prosecutions. Many cases are still pending in court.
Among the task force’s arrests:* Richard Brandon Wells, 31, a
Raleigh firefighter who was arrested March 11 after detectives say he
talked online with a detective he thought was a 14-year-old girl. Wells
allegedly performed sexual acts on a Web cam while talking to the deputy
and indicated he was willing to travel for sex.
* Jon Edward Palmieri, 32, a former Wake Forest University assistant baseball
coach. He was arrested in August at a local movie theater where he
thought he was going to meet a 14-year-old girl he had been talking to
online.
* Jeffrey Joe Page, 46, of Burlington who faces more
than 100 charges, including second-degree exploitation of a minor,
first-degree sex offense and indecent liberties with a minor. The
charges involve sexual molestation of a girl under 13 and relate to
numerous child pornography images found on Page’s computer.
* Brian Daniel Barker, 42, a former Forsyth County sheriff’s deputy and
son of former Forsyth Sheriff Ron Barker . Brian Barker was arrested in
December after showing up to meet a 13-year-old girl he had been
chatting with online since June, according to court documents. He faces
charges of using a computer to solicit a sex act with a minor.
* Richard Norman “Chip” Williams Jr., 52, a former publicist whose
clients included several high-profile NASCAR teams. Though his 2006
arrest came before the task force’s creation, it was one of the most
high-profile Internet predator investigations thus far in the Triad.Williams,
who is serving more than 20 years in federal prison, was arrested
after a Guilford County woman found her 15-year-old daughter had been
having sexual conversations online with Williams.The girl met
with Williams when she was 11 and they had several sexual encounters
together, according to court records and hearings. Authorities said
Williams also had sex with a 12-year-old girl at Guilford Courthouse
National Military Park in 2003.A search of his Mooresville home
produced a large volume of child pornography, including photos of him
with the first Guilford County girl, according to court records.
Williams was arrested after showing up at a local church to meet a young
girl created by police to lure him in a sting operation. He pleaded
guilty to all charges.
“There’s no stereotypical look for any kind
of criminal when it comes down to it,” Overcash said. “Since I’ve been
doing this, I’ve arrested everyone from the unemployed and uneducated to
corporate executives.”“We’ve had first timers to a guy that was
arrested a previous time for something similar that he had already
served time for.”

Stopping predators
For law enforcement, bringing a case against a suspect comes down to being
able to prove intent. Arrests have come from conversations lasting less
than an hour to as much as several months.Under the law, an
actual meeting isn’t necessary. Prosecutors must show the suspect’s
belief they are talking to a child and their intent to perform sexual
acts with him or her.No matter how long an investigation takes
and how much evidence officers want to have, Jones said Alamance
detectives are ready to act if they think a suspect poses a high risk to
a child.“You may have what the suspect thinks is a 13- or
14-year-old child they are talking to online that’s really a police
officer. But we are finding there are 20 to 40 other people online that
they are talking to,” he said.“We are just one of them. What are
the odds that some of the others actually are 13- or 14-year-old
children? That’s why as soon as we make our case, we move,” Jones said,
even if it means a lesser charge.Investigators routinely go out
of their county to make arrests. In out-of-state cases where the suspect
isn’t coming here — often their information is forwarded to another
agency.Investigators are trained on specific methods that avoid
entrapment and how to ensure what they are doing stays within the realm
of the law.Overcash says predators aren’t just in Internet chat
rooms anymore. Facebook, MySpace, video game consoles, cell phones,
iPods or anything else with Internet capability have become hunting
grounds.And too much personal information in the wrong place can
lead to trouble.“There might be a picture of you in your
volleyball uniform and it might say “Whirlies” — what does that tell
you? It says Whirlies here, 15, Greensboro N.C.,” said Overcash, who
routinely talks to youth groups about Internet safety.“Then you
post on there (to a friend) 'sounds cool, let’s meet at the Chick-fil-A
at Friendly Center on Friday’ — you aren’t necessarily giving specifics,
but you are.”That information entered into a few search engines
can quickly lead to a stalking or a kidnapping case.“They could
introduce themselves into your life and swipe you up,” Overcash said.Stephanie
Reese, an assistant Guilford County district attorney, said child sex
predators are good at what they do and know the ways to groom a child
for their own exploitation.“They select children at an age when
they are really vulnerable,” Reese said. “As a girl, it’s the age where
you’re not really 'pretty,’ you’re insecure, you have braces. Then you
get someone who approaches them and says, 'Gosh you’re really cool and I
like you’ and appeals to their ego and insecurities.”

Stiff price to pay
In most cases, prosecutors say many
defendants accused in online sexual chats or the child pornography trade
will plead guilty. Many don’t want to endure a public trial and add to
the embarrassment and turmoil a trial can cause for their families.In
most cases, the evidence is strong and hard to defend against.In
a federal case, sexual exploitation of a minor or child porn charges
bring a minimum of five years in federal prison. More time can be added
depending on the specific charge, number of charges, the defendant’s
prior record and the severity of the crime.In state court, a
suspect generally will face a variety of four specific charges — two
levels of soliciting a child by computer, with or without travel;
indecent liberties with a child; and sexual exploitation of a child,
Reese said.The crimes can result in a punishment as lenient as
probation to as severe as more than two years in prison.Each
penalty will vary depending on several factors under the state’s
structured sentencing guidelines. If the suspect met with and had sex
with a child, he or she can face charges with a maximum penalty of life
in prison.“I like to think that every bad guy that travels to
meet me. ... It was a child that I saved that day,” Overcash said.