Robert Farley, a retired sex crimes investigator from Chicago, talks with military law enforcement, parents and students at U. Army Garrison Stuttgart in Germany, about how online predators use the latest technology and the Internet to find their victims. Now a consultant, Farley was at U. Army Garrison Stuttgart this week to talk with military law enforcement, parents and students about the dangers that lurk online for children. The first step, though, was debunking some myths about what a predator looks like.
In recent years, that phenomenon has pretty much died out, Farley said. Social networking Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace are where pedophiles are now looking for victims. Never allow a child to be online after school without an adult in the house. The afternoon is prime time for pedophiles. Also, be cautious about what pictures are posted on home pages. Stay out of chat rooms. During his time as an investigator, Farley watched as pedophiles jumped on the latest technology.
In the s, trading in child porn was mainly restricted to secret publications with underground networks of people trading material in back alleys.
By , everything started to change with the Internet, which enabled pedophiles to trade images by the thousands, while also giving opportunities to interact with children. Now, cell phones are the latest danger, with predators getting numbers off social networking pages to make more direct connections, Farley said. In the case of social sites such as MySpace, teens too often are under the illusion that they are protected from predators, Farley said.
Sign up to receive a daily email of today's top military news stories from Stars and Stripes and top news outlets from around the world. Sign Up Now. Theaters U. John Vandiver. John covers U. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware. Sign Up for Daily Headlines Sign up to receive a daily email of today's top military news stories from Stars and Stripes and top news outlets from around the world.
