I had a few minutes to spare between dinner and popping in a movie and decided to check my email. was I floored when I read a forwards from a friend. The following is a copy of the email minus identifying email addresses of my friends and the original sender of the email to my friend. Phone nubers, addresses and names are NOT the only way on line preditors get to their victims:


EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ ALL OF THIS and HAVE YOUR CHILDREN READ IT TOO!

For those of you with children and/or grandchildren, please take note.

Shannon could hear the footsteps behind her as she walked toward home.
The thought of being followed made her heart beat faster. "You're being
silly, she told herself, "no one is following you." To be safe, she
began to walk faster, but the footsteps kept up with her pace. She was
afraid to look back and she was glad she was almost home. Shannon said a
quick prayer, "God please get me home safe." She saw the porch light burning
and she leaned against the door for a moment, relieved to be in the safety of her home.
She glanced out the window to see if anyone was there. The sidewalk was empty.

After tossing her books on the sofa, she decided to grab a snack and get 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 the Hornets. LOL. Their uniforms are so gross! They look like bees. LOL

GoTo123:
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. Bye

Meanwhile......GoTo123 went to the member menu and began to search for her profile.
When it cam! e 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 Carolina

Hobbies: 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 name 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*****

Please send this to as many people as you can to teach them not to give any information about them
selves. This world we live in today is too dangerous to even give out your age, let alone anything else.

EVEN FORWARD THIS TO PEOPLE WITHOUT KIDS SO THEY CAN SEND IT TO FRIENDS
THAT DO HAVE CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDREN

[Rhapsody]

YES.... that is the sad truth that the internet can be more evil than the actual world we live in.

[Bethsway]

wow very scarey...for children are so innocent...don't realize what they give out..parents please watch more closely...!

[desirae]

wow...what a touching story, I hope people learn from this.

yup sure is.

Yea my reaction when I saw this too. When I have my friends children here they know they get on line alone here. more than once we will be playing a game and some on line jerk will put up on the chat bar somethig like - wow you are good at this where did you learn that last trick? the kids think its funny that I type in - my father a new york city police officer taught me that one. - when we dont live in NYC.

Sure is. and I too hope people learn and this keeps someone safe.

[Mystry]

There should be age restrictions for children...because not all parents can monitor their kids all the time and kids nowadays want privacy...but then its not only children who can be tricked...it is insane to let children have as much freedom as they do on the internet...I think it should be msn who has the responsibility of monitoring their program...but instead what do they do they put a site up for children which is supposed to be for children but guess what that doesnt deter any of the sick bastards...its the same with myspaces...it's just insane how little msn cares about any kind of safty at all for kids...if they cared they would only allow adults to use messenger and myspaces but nope if there is a buck to be made what do they care...this reminds of the one time my nieces daughter went and put her phone number up on msn because she wanted her friends to call her...I mean she put it up right on the little thingy thing beside your name...when I saw that I just about lost it on her and I informed her mother what she had done...unfornunately she cant monitor her that close because she just goes to her friends house and gets on that way...so I think restricting children from using msn or myspaces would be in the best interest of children everywhere...and you cares if their privacy is breached...if it saves their lives then thats a good thing...

[Mystry]

oh and to anyone who thinks they are safe on myspace or msn I say its time for a wakeup call...hello...knock knock...

yea I know some parents cant be right there all the time. the way my friends have solved this problem is having the computer in a public area in the house like the dinng roo, kitchen and living rooms, instead of bedrooms that way the children can get on it and feel like they are on line without being watched 100% of the time and the parents can go about their home activities but yet take a peek now and then to ensure safety.

Another friend has her children go to the library after school that way they have computer access but yet on line safety because the library has specific computers designated for children that are monitored. The area teens love it because they can get on line and chat for one hour without getting interrupted by parents but yet parents love it because the library computers for children keeps a log of any on line activity based on library card number.

As for "myspace.com" this thread is about internet preditors and this email not about naming and targeting specific websites so lets not go there and get debates about my.space or target any other specific website area in this thread. you can do that in another thread if you need to.

[Sarah116]

Why that is fantastic! I think I will use it on ANswers when I find people who need to read that and learn that lesson! Thanks so much! Sarah

[Taonuviel]

I remember seeing this when 1985(my birthyear) was still an underage one. I've actually tracked kids down like this myself - for their own safety. I worked with youth online, and often with serious problems. There were a few times when I looked for information like in this story to track down suicidal kids and get their info to their local authorities. A very fast-paced and somewhat thrilling experience, which seems odd to say, but it's so amazing how the bits connect - of the times I tried to track suicidal kids down, I'd guess it worked for about half.
-Now imagine a pervert doing this, instead of a helpline worker... bad news.

I would guess that about half the youth online leave enough information to track them down - based on what I've seen.

You're welcome Feel free to use it.


by the way to anyone reading this thread my post about a police officer in this thread is supposed to be the children I take care of know they Do NOT get on line alone.my head thinking faster then I type these days. LOL

I don't know how long it has been out there in cyberspace. what I do know is that a friend sent it to me after a friend sent it to her.

I personally don't track down kids on line safety reasons or not. I don't want people on line tracking me down or my child so I dont do it to them.

Bottom line is that if its a kid that has been taught to lie on line and not tell personal information even saying they are suicidal can be a lie. So in those cases I tell the person to locate their therapist, a crisis center, go to their local er and then I remove myself from that conversation.

I can't prevent anyone on line from killing themself and they cant prevent me from doing so

Here and in many USA states unless I am a police officer locating children on line for official police, FBI and so on business at the direction of my commanding persons then tracking ANYONE down on line is legally considered stalking and engaging in illegal activities with possible intent to harm. Here they put adults in jail for rhis.

[JustAPixie]

OK I don't want to use the net anymore!

[Taonuviel]

The difference is I was working on a helpline with minors. Tracking them down by the information they've given and then turning that information over to their local police is not stalking. Stalking involves much more than that. Ministries are required by law to report suicidal minors - the internet makes this more difficult, but as you can see it is still possible.
As for false alerts - the kid probably needs help whether they're actually in danger or not, and alerting their parents to how much information they're releasing online is never a bad thing.

Yea helplines are different vollunteers that work on hotlines (helplines) have attority to locate those in danger and have the technology (caller ID, IP address and so on) to do that. Any webiste owner can locate a person by their IP address. IP addresses is how website owners are able to block a specific computer from gaining access and can also be used for locating someone. Thats in part how police are able to locate those child sexual abusers on line.

There are some teens here in this complex that injoy going on the internet and claiming they are going to kill themselves just to watch everyones reactions. Its basically the equivelent of when I was a teen and all my friends were into opening the phone book and dialing a random number and making a crank call.

It happens all the time on the internet and I have encountered many on line websites where people are claiming to be teens in suicidal, self harm danger and then when the owner of the site checks it out by IP address it turns out to be that the person was completely safe and it was a crank 98% of the time.

On one site a member claimed to have been typing from her hospital bed because she had been hospitalized on suicidal watch because her abuser made her swollow pills then he raped her. She had the whole community in an uproar, we all wanted to help her so a fund was set up for her and cards were bought and sent to the owner of the website because she lived in the persons same town. she got to the hospital to personnally deliver everything and the person could not be found. There was no person by that name hopsitalized and when tracking the IP address it lead to a company where you can buy something to eat and get on the internet..

[alisandria]

This isn't a true story. http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/shannon.htm

Although, it does bring to light the need for internet safety. There are safety proframs out there by makers such as Norton, etc. that have safety plans implemented into them. As well as many ISP have parental controls, that kids aren't allowed to certain sites. Just changing your interent security selections makes a difference.

hugs Lisa

thanks

just forwarded the links on to my friends.

[Peanuts]

Plus - any email that states at the conclusion of the story to "send to everyone you know .." is considered in the same category as chain letters and spam. The true intent is to clog the internet mail servers with "junk". Even though often the story content seems noble - it usually is not real. A good rule of thumb is to not forward anything that requests you to "forward to all your contacts". Business email systems sometime crash with the burden of these type of email communications - it is costly to build and maintain mail filters. Its a mess.