Protecting your Children from Online Predators

I'd like to give credit for this information from www.oprah.com. Although some of this info is from the U.S, these tips are universal.

Protect Your Children from Online Predators

Minimize the Chances of an Online Predator Victimizing a Child

• Warn your children about potentially dangerous people who may try to befriend them online.
• Keep the computer in a public space in your house, not your child's bedroom.
• Don't allow children to use a screen name profile or to give out personal information online.
• Use parental controls provided by your service provider or blocking software.
• Monitor all chat room usage.
• Insist children never agree to meet someone they've met online without your permission.

Types of Children Sexual Predators Target and Prey Upon

• Children with lower self-esteem
• Children who divulge too much personal information online
• Children who frequent chat rooms
• Children willing to engage in online conversations about sex

Signs Your Child Might Be at Risk Online

• Your child spends large amounts of time online, especially at night.
• You find pornography on your child's computer.
• Your child receives phone calls from people you don't know or is making calls to numbers you don't recognize.
• Your child turns the computer off or quickly changes the screen on the monitor when you come into the room.
• Your child becomes withdrawn from the family. Offenders try to drive wedges between a child and their family, trying to accentuate any minor problems at home a child may have.
• Your child is using an online account belonging to someone else. Sex offenders will sometimes provide potential victims with a computer account for communications with them.

If Your Child Is Approached by an Online Predator
Write down as much information as possible—including the screen name or e-mail address of the person who contacted the child, the URL of the chat room and the date and time of contact. Report the incident to the local police department or FBI.
In addition, you can contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's cyber tipline at 800-THE-LOST. This tipline collects leads from individuals reporting the sexual exploitation of children.

I'd Be Happy To Pay For His Travel Expenses!!

The same guy I blogged about in July - Who plead guilty already - somehow can't afford to make it to court for his sentencing. Apparently this guy's sentencing has been postponed many times. I am sick and tired of this. The guy is guilty. He said he was guilty!! Sentence him on the same day or within a week. A year later this guy's still out there on bail (he shouldn't have even been allowed out on bail by the way..) and now he phoned his lawyer right before his sentencing date and says "I can't afford to get to Guelph". The other thing that bothers me is the judge! It was said that he was thinking about issuing an arrest warrant for this guy but he changed his mind. Don't change your mind!!! Get this guy in your court room, stop him from wasting your time, the courts time and get him in jail.

The solution is easy: I'll pay for the travel expenses to get this guy into court so we can get him behind bars.

Here is the article from today's Guelph Mercury about this guy. Unbelievable!

GUELPH MERCURY: DECEMBER 19th, 2008

A child porn collector facing certain jail time called to say he couldn't make it to his sentencing date yesterday.
Defence counsel Matthew Stanley said his client, 47-year-old Gordon Beacock, has been living out of the area while free on bail and could not afford a trip to Guelph yesterday, where he was to be sentenced for possessing more than 22,000 child pornography images, videos and stories.
Stanley said Beacock called and told him he simply could not get to court.
Justice David Carr was not impressed that the sentencing, which had already been delayed several times, was off the rails again.
Carr said the key decision was whether to issue an arrest warrant for the man, who pleaded guilty last May.
But the judge was persuaded by Stanley's request to adjourn the case one more time, to Feb. 3 when Carr is next scheduled to be sitting in Guelph court.
"I won't accept this excuse on the next date," Carr said. "He will be here on Feb. 3.
"This won't be allowed again."
Police executed a search warrant at Beacock's basement apartment a stone's throw from a local elementary school in June 2007, after a property appraiser reported to police he had seen child pornography while conducting an appraisal of the home.
A forensic examination of the computer and related devices uncovered more than 19,500 photos, almost 2,000 videos and more than 600 stories determined to be child pornography.
It was at the time one of the largest seizure of such materials in Ontario history.