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After tossing her books on the sofa, she decided to grab a snack and went on-line. She logged on under
her screen name ByAngel213. She checked her Buddy
List and saw GoTo123 was on.
She sent him an instant message:ByAngel213:
Hi. I’m glad you are on! I thought someone was following me home today. It was really weird!GoTo123:
LOL You watch too much TV. Why would someone
be following you?
Don’t you live in a safe neighborhood?ByAngel213:
Of course I do. LOL I guess it was my imagination
cuz’ I didn’t see anybody when I looked out.GoTo123:
Unless you gave your name out on-line.
You haven’t done that have you?ByAngel213:
Of course not. I’m not stupid you know.GoTo123:
Did you have a softball game after school today?ByAngel213:
Yes and we won!!GoTo123:
That’s great! Who did you play?ByAngel213:
We played 2-0 the Hornets. LOL. Their uniforms are
so gross! They look like bees. LOLGoTo123:
What is your team called?ByAngel213:
We are the Canton Cats. We have tiger paws
on our uniforms. They are really cool.GoTo123:
Did you pitch?ByAngel213:
No I play second base. I got to go. My homework
has to be done before my parents get home. I
don’t want them mad at me. Bye!GoTo123:
Catch you later. ByeMeanwhile……..GoTo123 went to the member menu
and began to search for her profile. When it
came up, he highlighted it and printed it
out. He took out a pen and began to write down what
he knew about Angel so far.Her name: Shannon
Birthday: Jan. 3, 1985
Age: 13
State where she lived: North CarolinaHobbies: softball, chorus, skating and going to
the mall. Besides this information, he knew she
lived in Canton because she had just told him.
He knew she stayed by herself until 6:30 p.m. every
afternoon until her parents came home from work.
He knew she played softball on Thursday afternoons
on the school team, and the team was named the
Canton Cats. Her favorite number 7 was printed on
her jersey. He knew she was in the eighth grade at the
Canton Junior High School She had told him all this in
the conversations they had on-line. He had enough
information to find her now.Shannon didn’t tell her parents about the incident on
the way home from the ballpark that day. She didn’t
want them to make a scene and stop her from
walking home from the softball games. Parents were
always overreacting and hers were the worst. It made
her wish she was not an only child. Maybe if she
had brothers and sisters, her parents wouldn’t
be so overprotective.By Thursday, Shannon had forgotten about the
footsteps following her.Her game was in full swing when suddenly she
felt someone staring at her.. It was then that the
memory came back. She glanced up from her second
base position to see a man watching her closely.He was leaning against the fence behind first base
and he smiled when she looked at him. He didn’t
look scary and she quickly dismissed the sudden fear
she had felt.After the game, he sat on a bleacher while she talked
to the coach. She noticed his smile once again as she
walked past him. He nodded and she smiled back. He
noticed her name on the back of her shirt. He knew he
had found her.Quietly, he walked a safe distance behind her. It was
only a few blocks to Shannon ‘s home, and once
he saw where she lived he quickly returned to the
park to get his car.Now he had to wait. He decided to get a bite to eat
until the time came to go to Shannon ‘s house.
He drove to a fast food restaurant and sat there
until time to make his move.Shannon was in her room later that evening when
she heard voices in the living room.."Shannon, come here, " her father called. He
sounded upset and she couldn’t imagine why.
She went into the room to see the man from
the ballpark sitting on the sofa."Sit down," her father began, "this man has
just told us a most interesting story about you."Shannon sat back. How could he tell her parents
anything? She had never seen him before today!"Do you know who I am, Shannon ?" the man asked.
"No," Shannon answered.
"I am a police officer and your online friend, GoTo123."
Shannon was stunned. "That’s impossible! GoTo is a
kid my age! He’s 14. And he lives in Michigan !"The man smiled. "I know I told you all that, but it wasn’t
true. You see, Shannon , there are people on-line
who pretend to be kids; I was one of them. But
while others do it to injure kids and hurt them, I belong
to a group of parents who do it to protect kids
from predators. I came here to find you to teach you
how dangerous it is to talk to people on-line. You
told me enough about yourself to make it easy for me
to find you. You named the school you went to, the
name of your ball team and the position you played.
The number and name on your jersey just made
finding you a breeze."Shannon was stunned. "You mean you don’t
live in Michigan ?"He laughed. "No, I live in Raleigh It made you feel safe
to think I was so far away, didn’t it?"She nodded.
"I had a friend whose daughter was like you. Only
she wasn’t as lucky. The guy found her and
murdered her while she was home alone.
Kids are taught not to tell anyone when they are
alone, yet they do it all the time on-line. The
wrong people trick you into giving out information
a little here and there on-line. Before you know it,
you have told them enough for them to find you
without even realizing you have done it. I hope you’ve
learned a lesson from this and won’t do it again. Tell
others about this so they will be safe too?""It’s a promise!"
That night Shannon and her Dad and Mom all
knelt down together and thanked God for protecting
Shannon from what could have been a tragic situation.*****NOW****
EVEN FORWARD THIS TO
PEOPLE WITHOUT KIDS SO
THEY CAN SEND IT TO
FRIENDS THAT DO HAVE
CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDRENI heard this before…..never mind kids we all give info about ourselves online all the time……. thats it not posting online anymore!!!
I know we are all under usernames but to be honest the likes of bebo etc the kids are left wide open!! I dont mind facebook because you have to invite a friend or accept one etc etc.
Scary alright 😯Im on fb and bebo and wouldnt let mine have either acc’s.. kids are to eager to be evryone’s friends.. their accepting ppl they dont know out of curiousity.. to dangeroues.. the secondary school my dd is starting discourage social networking sites..
It really is scary. 🙄It is all very scary!!! I work in the computer industry and know all about the things people are capable of doing while on the computer. I heard a story a couple of years back about a girl in the uk who had a webcam on her computer in her bedroom – this was a young girl pre teens to early teens. She was chatting on one of these sites. Finished up for the night, shut down her computer and got ready for bed. The next time she went onto her computer, she had a message from a pervert – asking about her pjs. On investigation, he had hacked onto her computer, taken control of the webcam and was watching her dress in her bedroom.
If you give your child access to the internet, you need to put the proper controls into place so that they cannot access sites without your permission. It is very easy to get software to do this and if the child then attempts to log onto something, even accidently, they will be locked out until you enter a password.
Happymammy – having usernames is not much security. I have never met either Taylor5 or yourself but I know a huge amount about you both, based on conversations on this site – I even know what both of you look like(and I did not ask your other half!). I probably give out as much information about myself!!
This is a work computer, with a very advanced security system in place but last year I still managed to get a message from a weirdo asking me to add them to my contacts – nothing is 100% safe with the internet!
oh my god!!!!! That has made the hairs on my back stand to attention… My kids are only young for now BUT ive printed this off and will be showing it to them when their old enough to know the consequences, thanks for that.
well girls i was on facebook and had very little info.no photos of me profile locked etc. somehow an( ex skeleton psycho ! for want of a better term 😈 has managed to make contact and also has been phoning one of my family members homephn.my parents are exdirectory.looking for me.he didnt even have my married name so i assume!!!!! i have deactivated my fb account to be on yhe safeside!!!!He not a murderer or nything 🙂 but all the same i had a hard time in my teens with him and could do without him snooping into my life.so just be careful. and scole,yummy ,taylor,meabh in case u were wondering where i have gone off fb 😉 i think im safe enuf here 😯
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