Internet Safety News
Stalkers of Cyberstalkers
by Anne Collier
Civilians who monitor online chat to flush out sexual predators for arrest are not helpful to law-enforcement agencies, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article.1 "Law enforcement, for the most part, views the Internet activists as attention-seeking busybodies. The FBI has ordered a handful of 'vigilantes' to stop."
Unlike law-enforcement officers, most online activists are neither authorized to make arrests nor trained in the law. Setting up a sting operation to catch a sexual predator is not unlike doing a drug buy on the street to catch a dealer, one officer pointed out in The Los Angeles Times article. Besides the personal-safety risks, it takes training to gather evidence and make arrests that can lead to convictions.
Local law-enforcement agencies have help in the form of state-level Internet Crime Task Forces (there are 30 now); the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's CyberTipline®; and growing communication among these entities and U.S. Customs, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Postal Service.
Officers who work on Internet Crime Task Forces across the U.S. take advantage of online anonymity to pose as vulnerable teenagers and, through online chat, develop "relationships" with child molesters until a face-to-face meeting is arranged. The officers then show up at the meeting place to make an arrest based on crimes such as "online enticement of children for sexual acts." Additional information on the sexual exploitation of children online can be found at www.cybertipline.com.
1Jack Leonard and Monte Morin. "Stalking the Web Predator"The Los Angeles Times. January 17, 2002, www.latimes.com/technology/la-000004425jan17.story.
Anne Collier is editor of the SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter and president of NetFamilyNews.org a nonprofit news service for parents and teachers of online kids.
