It’s instantaneous and anonymous, and predators may be using it
to gain access to children – even in geographically isolated places
like McKean County.

“There is no such thing as isolation when it comes to the
Internet,” said Nils Frederiksen, spokesman for Attorney General
Tom Corbett. The AG’s office has launched Operation Safe Surf to
help educate kids, parents and schools about the importance of
being safe online.

“A decade ago, child safety meant educating them to be wary of
strangers,” he said. Predators would lurk around places children
would frequent, such as playgrounds or bus stops.

“That’s how predators used to have to work. That was the only
way they could approach kids,” Frederiksen said. “Now they can sit
at their computer and anonymously communicate with kids around the
world and very quickly hone in one kids who are more
vulnerable.

“Predators are always good at identifying vulnerability,
establishing trust, luring kids in and victimizing them.”

The Internet speeds up the process. While predators have been
known to “groom” a child for days, weeks or months before sexually
assaulting them, the anonymous nature of the contact via a computer
can lead to the process happening much faster.

Frederiksen explained the AG’s office has units of undercover
agents who go online posing as children to trap the predators.

“We’ve made 61 arrests over the last year and a half,” he said.
“A number of them, within minutes of the initial communication, the
conversation turns sexual. Often the conversation turns to meeting.
We’ve had individuals turn up for meetings the same day the initial
conversation occurred.

“It takes a matter of seconds for our undercovers to be
approached,” Frederiksen added, explaining the problem is far more
serious than people recognize. In one instance, within 10 seconds
of the initial contact, the undercover agent was sexually
propositioned.

“They are trolling the Internet,” he said of the predators. “If
someone doesn’t respond quickly to their advances, they move on
quickly.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that someone doesn’t approach
one of our undercover agents (online) and try to set up a sexual
liaison,” he added. “Our child predator unit has a 100 percent
conviction rate.”

Describing the people who have been arrested to date,
Frederiksen said they certainly don’t look threatening.

“The majority of them we’ve arrested are usually middle-aged
male, many with college educations. Many are professional people
with careers. Many have families and children at home. They
certainly don’t look like predators.

“They’re not blue, They don’t have fangs. They don’t have
tails,” he said. “They go home. They get on the computer. They talk
to children for the purpose of (sexually assaulting) them.”

Children in the age group of 10 to 15 are the most susceptible,
as they are “wired” with high tech devices and still young enough
to be impressed by an adult paying attention to them online,
Frederiksen said.

“They might be alone, unsupervised, lonely. It might seem fun,”
he said. “Dangerous things always seem fun until someone gets
hurt.”

The AG’s Web site features areas for children by age group, as
well as areas for parents and teachers. Educational materials can
be ordered for classrooms and speakers can be requested to explain
online safety to school children.

There is also an area on the site to report possible cyber
crime.

Attorney General’s Office Offers Tips on Staying Safe Online

“First and foremost, it’s important to talk to your children,”
said Nils Frederiksen, spokesman for Attorney General Tom Corbett,
advising how to protect children from online predators.

“People still like to believe that’s a problem that will happen
elsewhere. There is an air of disbelief. They can’t believe someone
would want to do this to a child. They can’t believe it would
happen here,” he said.

The reality is that with the Internet and communications
technology, it has become relatively easy for predators to target
children – nearly all of whom are online, wired up and plugged in
to something.

“You come home … everybody comes home from school and from work,
the kids submerse themselves in the electronic world,” Frederiksen
said. “You need to alert them of the dangers.”

Explain that there are people online who are out to cause harm
to others.

“They are not your friends. They will try to do you harm,”
Frederiksen said, offering advise to tell children. “They should
communicate only with people that they know … people they’ve
actually met face to face. Help them understand while the world is
filled with many people who will go out of their way to help them,
there are also people who will do them harm.

Exercise caution when using social networking sites.

“You may not think you are posting personal information, but
predators are very good at putting together clues,” he said.

Frederiksen explained a reporter in southern Pennsylvania
challenged one of the AG’s agents to use only public resources and
try to track down information on someone using only their screen
name.

Within a half hour, the agent had the person’s name, gender,
age, hair color, school, school sports team and schedule, a
satellite map of her home neighborhood and what would be her likely
route to school – all by using clues left on blogs and various
places on the Internet.

“It doesn’t take long to put those puzzle pieces into a very
accurate picture of someone’s life,” Frederiksen said. “you never
know what pieces of information make you stick out from someone
else.”

Monitor your child’s Internet activity and ask them
questions.

“Me, as a parent of teenagers, I reserve the right to ask them
at any time who they are talking to,” he said. “Kids are very good
at hiding that.”

“Keep the computers in a public place. If the computer is in the
child’s bedroom, you might as well just invite the stranger in to
sit down next to them on the bed,” Frederiksen said.

Chatrooms are an easy access point for someone wanting to start
a conversation with a child, he warned.

“Unless there is a strong, valid reason for them to be there,
I’d be skeptical about that,” he said. “There is always going to be
a dark side to anything that comes along. We need education and
enforcement.

“There needs to be a strong disincentive. We’d like them
(predators) to believe everyone they chat with online is an
undercover agent. We would hope that would lead them to engage in
another activity.

“Leave kids out of it.”