Man pleads guilty to using Internet for sex with minor
Federal prosecutors say a New Hampshire man pleaded guilty today to using the Internet to persuade a minor to have sex and one count of possession of child pornography.
Sonny Szeto of Nashua, New Hampshire, was arrested February 24th. Authorities say the 22-year-old Szeto used myspace.com to lure an 11-year-old Connecticut girl into having sex and he traveled to Connecticut to do so.
The question is what an 11 year old is doing chatting unattended for so long. These Internet predators are quick but she still had to be chatting for quite some time with no supervision. Can't blame MySpace.....

Man Accused Of Luring Girl On Internet
Parents are starting to hear a lot these days about adults using the Internet to do their dirty work. And that is to lure and sexually exploit children.
The latest case was developed in Fort Oglethorpe Georgia involving 43 year old Keith Alan Hanshaw.
Detectives say Hanshaw started a relationship with a 15 year old Dayton Ohio girl on an internet chatroom in early April.
They say she was a particularly vulnerable target.
Aren't most 15 year olds vulnerable? Parents are going to keep hearing about Internet Predators until they do something about it - it has to be stopped at the computer - it's not an electronic babysitter.....

Assault suspect may have met teen online
Documents from a search warrant served at the home of a White Bear Lake man accused of trying to have sex with a Rogers teen indicate the two might have met on MySpace.com or in a chat room for gays.
John Charles Bucholz, 41, is out on bail after being charged in connection with the June 8 episode, which gained attention because the boy's father confronted Bucholz in the teen's bedroom.
The boy, 14, told police that Bucholz surprised him as he was falling asleep and threatened to kill him unless the teen performed oral sex on him. The teen said he began to comply when his father came into the room and began yelling, demanding an explanation. The father detained Bucholz until police arrived.
The boy also said he and a friend had been talking in an Internet chat room for gays the previous week. According to the warrant, the teen told police he is not gay and that he visited the chat room for fun.
If I was the father I would have much rather found out about this before it got that far by monitoring his computer a little closer.....

A 14-YEAR-OLD girl went missing from her Sheffield home for five days after meeting a man through an Internet chatroom.
The teenager, from Shiregreen, travelled to London with a 19-year-old man who befriended her on-line just weeks previously.
Concerned police seized her computer and after finding e-mail exchanges between the pair tracked her down to a run-down flat in the Tower Hamlets area.
Glad they found her but he still had her for 5 days. The damage to her could very well be irreversible.

Man admits molesting girl he met on Web
This one shows how addicted (sick) these Internet Predators really are.
Arizona man was being prosecuted for molesting another girl when he contacted Fullerton victim, police say.
Swanstrom was being prosecuted for molesting a young girl in Arizona in July 2003 when he contacted the Fullerton girl in an Internet chat room, according to police. During the chats, Swanstrom told the girl he was a 17-year-old boy.
Over a period of months, Swanstrom's courting of the girl escalated from Internet chats to telephone conversations to personal visits, police said. He gave her presents that included a diamond necklace, a book, a teddy bear and a cell phone, according to transcripts from the preliminary hearing.
"It just shows how much of a predator this guy was," Kaliban said. "He is awaiting sentencing in Arizona and he comes out here for one last hurrah before he goes to prison."
I can say no more......

This one's an update on one of the previous posts -
"Homeland Security official arrested in child sex sting - A deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was arrested Tuesday at his Maryland home on charges he used his computer in an attempt to seduce a child and transmitted harmful materials to a minor."
Now - Aide knew legal risks of teen sex - Brian Doyle knew that living his fantasy of having sex with the 14-year-old girl he had met over the Internet could land him in jail.The 56-year-old press aide for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told the teen in an Internet chat that he had "soooo much to lose" by meeting her.
In an excerpt from one instant-message conversation, Doyle, who used the screen name Bdkhhome1, told Ashlynne: "hey it is illegal . . . and it would be exciting and forbidden . . . you are young -- illegal -- and gorgeous. and it would be great. fun. food, laughter, talk and yes sex."
Yes he is a very sick man.
A fine example of how power and the Internet works. It gives people a chance to be anonymous and anomosity gives some people a great sense of power, a power so great that they think they can never get caught.......

Watch your kids - the Internet predators succomb to such feelings of power, and a susceptible child will think of the predator as a god.........

Internet-predator danger rises during summer vacation - Monitoring software will help parents keep an eye on computer usage, hopefully criminals at bay.
No longer is it enough to know where your kids are at curfew time. Who they're talking to on the computer in the middle of the day can be just as dangerous. "Now that school's out, it's a free for all," Time limits on your child's chat time won't stop predators.
Distance won't stop predators from meeting an Internet chatter.
Perhaps more frightening, the person on the other end of an Internet chat can be right down the street.
Be your own Internet cop.
Blocks on the computer aren't enough, says Widner. Kids know how to find their way around those.
Looking at your son's or daughter's page on MySpace.com or similar networking sites isn't enough. They can have a page that you see and a whole different one that their friends -- or Internet savvy predators -- can access.
We know parents don't want to be spies. But how many times have you said, "I'll do anything I have to to protect my family."
Knowing who our children are chatting with or who's seeing their profile on the Internet is part of protecting them. Predators will do anything they can to contact victims; we've got to do whatever we can to protect our loved ones.
Widner recommends Spector Pro but says SpyBuddy is a less expensive alternative that's more user friendly. Spector Pro tracks everything done on a given computer -- chats, e-mail, instant messages, networking and other Web sites and every keystroke, including passwords -- but is undetectable to the person using the computer.
Excellent advice Detective Mike Widner - excellent advice indeed!

Lawyer Arrested In Internet Sex Sting - The Attorney General's Internet Crimes Against Children task force and Winfield police apprehended a Schaumburg man for allegedly traveling to Winfield to have sex with a minor, according to a release.

NYC firefighter sentenced to probation in sex sting - Investigators said he used a firehouse computer while on duty to try to entice a 14-year-old girl to have sex with him.

Two men arrested in computer sex cases - Detectives from the Pinellas County and Palm Beach County sheriff's offices have arrested a school administrator and another man for seducing children over the Internet.

Rochester hockey coach arrested - Authorities say Dennis Jones sent inappropriate e-mails to a Rochester youth hockey player in March pretending to be a teen hockey player from Canada. It started with innocent talk of hockey... then turned into sexual content.

A Lawyer, a Firefighter, a School Administrator, a Hockey Coach. Still think your kids are safe???

24-Year-Old Man Charged With Rape Of A Child And Teenager
A warning from the Shelby County Sheriff's Office for parents to keep an eye on what your children are doing online. This comes after two young girls were raped by an adult man one of them came in contact with thru the internet.
One of the victims in this case a 12-year-old girl actually invited him over to her house and even let him in her bedroom window to watch movies.
She actually used her computer to invite him to her house - I'm thinking that if mom and dad were monitoring the computer.......
Investigators say in case they were able to apprehend the suspect quickly. But say this is a lesson for all parents about just how dangerous the Internet can be in the wrong hands.
This is a lesson - Learn from it.

Predators luring girls via chat lines, authorities warn
She was lonely and looking for someone to talk to.
He was the kind voice on the other end of the line who said he wanted to be her friend.
But when they met at his house in New Hampshire after weeks of phone conversations, he raped her.
She was 13. He was Philip Longeway , 32, a convicted sex offender from Manchester.
Authorities are starting to warn people.....

Former selectman faces sex charges
A well-known local politician in this affluent community west of Boston is accused of driving to a Rhode Island apartment complex this week to have sex with someone he thought was a 15-year-old girl he met in an Internet chat room. ''It's unbelievable. It's always somebody else, somewhere else, not someone you know in a small town like this," said Donna McDaniel.
That's the problem - everybody thinks it's always somebody else, somewhere else.....

EXTRA: MySpace can lead predators to your home in 30 minutes
It is the hottest spot on the Internet. If you have a teen, there's a good bet he or she is on MySpace. It's hot in more ways than one!
Detective Phil Dubord, FBI Innocent Images Task Force:
“You're actually inviting a predator into your house each time they go into a chat room.”
Detective Phil Dubord of the FBI Innocent Images Task Force says parents are foolish not to monitor their children's activities on MySpace.
Detective Phil Dubord, FBI Innocent Images Task Force:
“It's just like giving a child a loaded weapon and having them go in a room and go behind a door. Who knows what they can do with it. ”
Detective Phil Dubord, FBI Innocent Images Task Force:
“Everybody's not nice. There are a lot of bad people out there. Would you go to bed at night and leave your child's window open? No. Why would someone leave a child alone unsupervised on the computer? It equates the same way.”
Very well said detective, well said indeed.