Internet Safety News
Teen Consultants to Law Enforcement
by Anne Collier
Is singer Justin Timberlake still hot or "oh so two-years-ago"? This is a real question on the minds of some agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI is working with three, eighth-grade girls in order to pose convincingly as young teens in online chatrooms.1 Over the years Internet child molesters have become savvier and more suspicious about whether they are chatting with a law-enforcement agent or real teenager. The suspects have begun to question the conversations on trends and pop culture, trying to catch the FBI agents off guard.2
"The girls were recruited after one of their fathers, an agent involved in the pedophile investigations, watched her instant messaging a friend and couldn't understand what she was typing. He realized that FBI training wasn't enough."3 The 14-year-old girls from Howard County, Maryland, are teaching agents nationwide about celebrity gossip, clothing trends, favorite information sources such as Teen People, and proper teen lingo. "The first time the girls gave a quiz, all the agents failed."4
"Probably the youngest instructors ever in an FBI classroom, the girls have become an invaluable help to Operation Innocent Images an initiative that tries to stop people from peddling child pornography or otherwise sexually exploiting children."5
1Phuong Ly. "Girls Teach
Teen Cyber Gab to FBI Agents." Washington Post.
June 4, 2003, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10052-2003Jun3.html.
2Ibid.
3Ibid.
4Ibid.
5Ibid.
Anne Collier is editor of the SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter and president of NetFamilyNews.org, a nonprofit news service for parents and teachers of online kids.
