You and your son are absolutely correct about all of the information people put out there about themselves. That is called your “digital footprint” and some people leave a huge one.

On top of that, the Internet is largely archived through projects like The Wayback Machine (www.archive.org) so what you put out there stays in perpetuity. There’s no “taking back my words” once it’s on the WWW.

My own department has been on the cutting edge as part of the founding ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) Task Force. I’m proud to say that they’re an award-winning group of dedicated men and women who deal with a lot of horrendous material day in and day out to try and protect children and solve crimes. Unfortunately, there is never enough funding to dedicate as many investigators as are needed.

The thing I’ve noticed most in my last ten years in law enforcement is how pervasive cyber crime has become. Almost every type of crime seems to have a cyber component to it – text messaged threatening notes, on-line credit card fraud, cell phone calls that violate protective orders, social networking sites that depict crimes captured on digital cameras…

Because I spend a lot of time on-line at sites that are specific to cyber crime, my take is that the criminals know plenty – the victims don’t know nearly enough. Therefore, I’m inclined to let the good guys in on the bad guys’ tricks. If I can educate one person (and I’ve had many readers write to me saying they never realized files were recoverable or their computer use leaves a trail), I’ve done my job.

Thank you! My son and I were just talking about a similiar thing regarding stalkers. So many young women innocently give out too much information, either in person or online, simply because they don’t know the risks.

I kept our computer in the family areas of the house with my three sons. NEVER in their rooms. Kids are too naive to fully undestand the risks. It’s a parents job to monitor what they are doing.

The reality is that the rate of recidivism amongst sex offenders is extremely high. In my home state, the consenual age is 16, but these predators don’t want 16-year olds. They go on-line to find the most prepubescent children they can find because that is where their deviance lies. Sometimes they “groom” their young victims over time but I have watched solicitations happen in as little as five minutes.

Just two weeks ago, three major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) – Verizon Communications, Sprint Nextel and Time Warner Cable – agreed to block Internet newsgroups and websites that contain and disseminate child pornography. The agreement was the result of an investigation out of NY Gov. Cuomo’s office. Posing as customers, investigators made the ISPs aware of the kiddie porn and the fact that it violated the user agreement, but nothing was done about it. It was either agree to yank the child porn sites and shut them down or face charges of fraud and deceptive business practices…

Having spent a great deal of time with our on-line investigator doing her “Catch a Predator” thing, you are well-justified in your concerns for your children. There is NOTHING as effective as parental oversight when it comes to keeping our kids safe on-line. No software program, no security setting, no lectures about the dangers on-line can beat parents being aware and watching what their kids are doing when they’re on the Internet. And these days, that goes well beyond computers to cell phones and on-line gaming systems that have become the new predator’s playground…