13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |Senate hears online safety concerns

Senate hears online safety concerns

Tom Walker/Eyewitness News

Police stings and parental controls have had a limited impact in stopping sex predators from targeting children on the internet. There is a growing push to do more.

In Virginia, schoolchildren are now required to get new safety information - not about traffic or health, but about the internet. Warnings of being sexually solicited are being built in to classes where they learn to use computers. It's one attempt to fight back against online predators.

"The sheer scale of this problem far exceeds anything that we anticipated," said Ernie Allen, Child protection advocate.

The Senate hearing was told companies that provide internet access are trying to stop illegal activity, but are overwhelmed by something new and despicable literally every day.

"Videotaped kidnappings, I'm not kidding you, some real, some not," said Christine Jones, Go Daddy, Inc.

The current Miss America told of foolishly giving out personal information to an online predator during a sleepover with friends when she was 13.

That information could have allowed him to find them.

"Luckily that did not happen. But about a week later he sent inappopriate pictures of himself. We alerted our parents and they alerted the proper authorities," said Nelson.

One researcher says under-age teens are the ones most preyed upon, and that they often make themselves targets.

"The kids who are at risk are the kids who are out there behaving in ways that kind of attract this attention or at least don't shut if off when many other kids would," said David Finkelhor, University of New Hampshire.

Teaching schoolkids to stay out of trouble online is one of the most recent strategies, but experts say the dangers are so new no-one really knows whether it will work.

Senators were told online predators only account for a small percentage of the sex crimes committed against children.

Chatting with Danger - Read Steve Jefferson's report on how police are fighting internet predators in Indiana, and what you can do to protect your kids.