Shannon was in her bedroom later that evening when she heard
voices
in the living room. "Shannon, come here," her father
called. He sounded upset and she couldn't imagine why. She went
into the room to see the man from the ballpark sitting on the
sofa. "Sit down," her father began, "this man has
just told us a most interesting story about you." Shannon
moved cautiously to a chair across from the man.
How could he tell her parents anything? She had never seen him
before today!
"Do you know who I am Shannon?" the man asked.
"No," Shannon answered.
"I am a police officer and your online friend, GoTo123."
Shannon was stunned. "That's impossible! GoTo is a kid my
age! He's 14 and he lives in Michigan!"
The man smiled. "I know I told you all that, but it wasn't
true. You see, Shannon, there are people on-line who pretend to
be kids; I was one of them. But while others do it to find kids
and hurt them, I belong to a group of parents who do it to protect
kids from predators. I came here to find you to teach you how
dangerous it is to give out too much information to people on-line.
You told me enough about yourself to make it easy for me to find
you. Your name, the school you went to, the name of your ball
team and the position you played. The number and name on your
jersey just made finding you a breeze."
Shannon was stunned. "You mean you don't live in Michigan?"
He laughed. "No, I live in Raleigh. It made you feel safe
to think I was so far away, didn't it?"
She nodded.
"I had a friend whose daughter was like you. Only she wasn't
as lucky. The guy found her and murdered her while she was home
alone.
Kids are taught not to tell anyone when they are alone, yet they
do it all the time on-line. The wrong people trick you into giving
out information a little here and there on-line. Before you know
it, you have told them enough for them to find you without even
realizing you have done it.
I hope you've learned a lesson from this and won't do it again"
"I won't," Shannon promised solemnly.
"Will you tell others about this so they will be safe, too?"
"It's a promise!"
That night Shannon and her dad and mom all knelt down together
and prayed. They thanked God for protecting Shannon from what
could have been a tragic situation.
Please tell as many people with kids that you can not to give
out information about themselves. If you have kids, then you might
want to think seriously about a monitoring
program as a precautionary measure to protect your kids. This
world we live in today is too dangerous to even give out your
age, let alone anything else.
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