Your child spends large
amounts of time on-line, especially at night.
Most children that fall victim to computer-sex
offenders spend large amounts of time on-line, particularly
in chat rooms. They may go on-line after dinner and on the weekends.
They may be latchkey kids whose parents have told them to stay
at home after school. They go on-line to chat with friends,
make new friends, pass time, and sometimes look for sexually
explicit information. While much of the knowledge and experience
gained may be valuable, parents should consider monitoring the
amount of time spent on-line.
Children on-line are at the greatest risk during
the evening hours. While offenders are on-line around the clock,
most work during the day and spend their evenings on-line trying
to locate and lure children or seeking pornography.
You find pornography
on your child's computer.
Pornography is often used in the sexual victimization
of children. Sex offenders often supply their potential victims
with pornography as a means of opening sexual discussions and
for seduction. Child pornography may be used to show the child
victim that sex between children and adults is "normal."
Parents should be conscious of the fact that a child may hide
the pornographic files on diskettes from them. This may be especially
true if other family members use the computer.
Your child receives phone
calls from men you don't know or is making calls, sometimes long
distance, to numbers you don't recognize.
While talking to a child victim on-line is a thrill for a computer-sex
offender, it can be very cumbersome. Most want to talk to the
children on the telephone. They often engage in "phone
sex" with the children and often seek to set up an actual
meeting for real sex.
While a child may be hesitant to give out his/her home phone
number, the computer-sex offenders will give out theirs. With
Caller ID, they can readily find out the child's phone number.
Some computer-sex offenders have even obtained toll-free 800
numbers, so that their potential victims can call them without
their parents finding out. Others will tell the child to call
collect. Both of these methods result in the computer-sex offender
being able to find out the child's phone number.
Your child receives mail,
gifts, or packages from someone you don't know.
As part of the seduction process, it is common for offenders
to send letters, photographs, and all manner of gifts to their
potential victims. Computer-sex offenders have even sent plane
tickets in order for the child to travel across the country
to meet them.
Your child turns the
computer monitor off or quickly changes the screen on the monitor
when you come into the room.
A child looking at pornographic images or having sexually explicit
conversations does not want you to see it on the screen.
Your child becomes withdrawn
from the family.
Computer-sex offenders will work very hard at driving a wedge
between a child and their family or at exploiting their relationship.
They will accentuate any minor problems at home that the child
might have. Children may also become withdrawn after sexual
victimization.
Your child is using an
on-line account belonging to someone else.
Even if you don't subscribe to an on-line service or Internet
service, your child may meet an offender while on-line at a
friend's house or the library. Most computers come preloaded
with on-line and/or Internet software. Computer-sex offenders
will sometimes provide potential victims with a computer account
for communications with them.
