The man allegedly asked the "child" to have sex with him and to meet him at the Burger King on Beretania Street, where police arrested him at 8:10 A.M. Similarly, a 31-year-old Waianae man convicted of using the Internet to arrange a sexual encounter with a minor has been ordered to spend 30 days in jail and five years on probation. The pedophile's girlfriend admitted that he went online looking for a 13-year-old girl to chat with him (Barayuga, 2004).
Keeping children safe on the Internet is everyone's job. Parents need to monitor and stay in close touch with their kids as they explore the Internet. Teachers should help students use the Internet appropriately and safely. Community groups, including libraries, should help educate the public about safe surfing (Montgomery, 2000).
The anonymity the Internet provides to pedophiles is of great concern to law enforcement (Oswell, 1999). Since it requires a huge amount of investment and law enforcement resources to track a pedophile, the law enforcement often finds unable to take some of these crimes seriously, unless the child is a physical danger of sexually exploited by the pedophiles. A number of these instances have been reported in the media.
Though there are occasions when law-enforcement agencies take these crimes seriously and form a task force. However, in most of cases, the parents are recommended to contact to local law enforcement, as they are the best guide for resolving or further guidance. The local police can help determine the legal rights and responsibilities, since laws for protecting children and families vary from state to state. Many times Internet crimes fall under federal jurisdiction (Dobeus, 1998). Then there are many child advocacy groups that report these crimes and enable the passing of stringent laws for the pedophiles. Parents can advise their kinds that they not give their real name, address, phone number, school information, marital status, occupation, income, or passwords to anyone through email, chat rooms, or newsgroups. This includes requests from internet service providers because a legitimate ISP request will not come from an email, chat room, or Usenet newsgroup.
Keeping a computer with Internet access in a child's room is highly discouraged. Computers should be placed in a room that is accessible all times. Parents should also be able to access the child's account and e-mail through a master password (Powell III, 2000). Usually, content filtering as well as age restrictions on various online services that may be available for the master account (Dolick, 1999).
Recently, many new products have come in the market, which feature the ability to filter e-mail from unknown sources and censor web sites that contain adult oriented material (Balkin, 1996).
References
1. Balkin, J.M. (1996) Media Filters, The V-Chip, and the Foundations of Broadcast Regulation, Duke Law Journal 45:1133
2. Barayuga, D. (2004) Man Gets Probation, Jail for Net Sex Offense. Honolulu Star-Bulletin staff and wire, July, p. A4
3. Dobeus, Jonathan (1998) Rating Internet Content and the Spectre of Government Regulation, John Marshall Journal of Computer & Information Law, 16:625
4. Dolick, H. (1999). Library Staff to Study Internet Filter Issue. The CalgaryHerald, October 28, p. B8.
5. Gibbs, N. (1999). The Monsters Next Door. Time Magazine (Canadian edition), May 3, 25-38.
6. Kinder, M. (1999). Kids' Media Culture: An Introduction. In Marsha Kinder (Ed.), Kids'media Culture (pp. 1-28). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
7. Mock, K. (2000). Hate on the Internet. In S. Hick, E.F. Halpin, and E. Hoskins (Eds.),Human Rights and the Internet (pp. 141-152). New York: St. Martin's Press.
8. Montgomery, K. (2000). Youth and Digital Media: A Policy Research Agenda. Journal of Adolescent Health, August, pp. 61-68
9. Oswell, D. (1999). The Dark Side of Cyberspace: Internet Content Regulation and Child Protection. Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 5 (4): 42-62
10. Powell, A.C. III. (2000). Children, the Internet, and…
