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Protecting your child online
By
WINK News
Story Created:
Dec 4, 2007 at 5:25 PM EST
Story Updated:
Dec 4, 2007 at 6:16 PM EST
LEE COUNTY, Fla. - They met on MySpace, a young teenage girl between the age of 12 and 15-years-old deputies she logged on and met 24-year-old Jonathan Mclean.
Mclean is in jail charged with four felony counts of sexual battery.
Lee County Sheriff's Investigators say an online chat turned into early morning meetings while the girls' parents slept in the next room. Investigators arrested Mclean after the girl told her mom what happened.
Sergeant Larry King says, "Without some restriction or guidance children become easy prey."
Sgt. King says restrictions and guidance can be as easy as making sure the computer is in a room where you can see it.
"When he wants to go on the Internet I will access it for him."
For Steve Blocker, it's logging on to the web for his 9-year-old son, but with his teenage daughter it's not that simple.
"Yeah we worry about it."
Blocker says his daughter is a fan of MySpace...and once accidentally logged on to a teen porn site by using it.
"She didn't know I could go back and trace where she has been and that was attached to MySpace."
Checking up on what sites your kids are going to is exactly what law enforcement officers say parents like Blocker should be doing.
If you aren't computer savvy, you can buy software that will make it easier for you.
Kenny Gluck with Best Buy says, "You can't read the actual messages itself but you can track what pages they go to and whose profile they are looking at."
Child Safe by Webroot also allows you to limit the amount of time your child is on the computer. Gluck also tells us the child safety software can keep their kids off certain websites, so if you don't want your child checking out MySpace or Facebook the software will keep them from logging on. Child Safe software runs about $40.