Clarkston-area parents heard a stern and frightening warning last week: Be vigilant about what your kids are doing online or they could fall victim to a sexual predator.
Several dozen people showed up to listen to the two-and-a-half hour presentation at Clarkston Junior High, and many found the information alarming.
‘We don’t like to talk about it in America but it’s a serious problem, said Rep. Mike Rogers, who presented his talk, ‘Parents Protecting Children From Internet Predators,? at the school Nov. 20.
‘One in five of our children will be solicited for sex online,? he said. ‘This year, 725,000 children will be asked to leave their home to go to someplace where they might’be asked for an elicit act.?
Rogers told parents it’s important they recognize danger signs, learn how to report concerns to authorities, and how to keep children safe from these criminals.
Experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children were also on hand to educate parents about the issue.
More and more, predators use the Internet to locate, ‘groom? and ultimately come face to face with children and teens, Rogers told parents.
It’s a trend he began watching and working on during his 1995-200 tenure in the Michigan State Senate, when he introduced and authored laws allowing police officers to pose as minors online in order to entice and prosecute predators.
Rogers told parents about one of the first cases he saw, which involved a man in his 40s pretending to be a14-year-old girl while talking to another 14-year-old girl online.
With the wealth of information available online, predators have an easy time learning about schools, activities and personal information, and therefore create a false sense of commonality and increase comfort level with a potential victim.
‘It was about 8 months before the predator made the first overt action to ask that child to do something,? he said.
‘Electronic courage,? said Rogers, who is the father of two school-age children, makes more aggressive and more willing to act on an unhealthy compulsion.
‘Years ago, sexual predators who wanted to make a connection with a child had to’show up at the playground or the school event, or someplace where the kids were hanging out,? Rogers said. ‘That’s a pretty hard thing to do, so it discouraged a lot of people who may have had those thoughts.?
Today, he said, child sexual predators can seek out potential victims just by sitting in front of a computer.
The first and most important rule for keeping kids safe online, he said, is a steadfast rule: Don’t post or give out any personal information. Ever.
MySpace and other social networking sites are among the most dangerous, since kids often use these platforms as a way to connect with friends and meet new people.
‘Ask questions about every person (on their friends list),? he said. ‘I know it’s hard to do; if you have a teenager they’re going to scream bloody murder, but it’s important you ask about every person on that list.?
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, who also spoke at the event, concurred with Rogers.
‘I can’t tell you how many Internet predators we’ve arrested right in Clarkston,? he said. Clarkston’s not a bad community; it’s a great community. (But) they’re everywhere.?
Like the case Rogers talked about, he said, sometimes a case will take months to develop while undercover officers pose as children online in an attempt to catch predators.
Other times, he said, it happens in the blink of an eye.
‘We had a case in Clarkston where the detective started talking to a guy who thought he was talking to a kid,? Bouchard said. ‘Within an hour the guy jumped into his car and made a three-and-a-half hour drive to Clarkston to meet what he thought was a going to be a young boy.?
The man was arrested, but not without a fight.
‘When he found out he was getting trapped by the cops he rammed our police car,? Bouchard said. ‘He was a violent, bad guy.?
In order to keep kids safe, he said, it is essential for parents to ask questions’lots of questions.
‘Predators are looking for them on the internet,? said Bouchard, who’s been heading the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office for the last decade. ‘The first thing you have to do is make sure computer is in a central room’where you walk by and say ‘What’s going on?? who are you talking to?? Your job is to be a parent, and sometimes be intrusive.?
One of our most successful undercover names was Jenna9. We’d go into a chat room and it was like flies.
We’d get instant messaged: ‘Do you like older men? Do you have pictures of yourself? Would you like to see pictures of me?? just by going into a chat room with a name that implied I was a 9-year-old girl.?
When kids share personal information in any way, he said, they share that information it can be used as a ‘patterning tool? for a predator.
‘If you know how to do a few things, simple things, you can actually track, search, follow and create a predator list and we’ve arrested people who’ve done that,? Bouchard said. ‘I can look for every 11-year-old boy that lives in Clarkston, and it will search these different fields and databases and I’ll get a list. If I’m a predator that’s my target list.?
Predators, he said, communicate with one another to avoid police, sharing tricks and techniques to ferret out police.
‘They’ve become organized and some of these groups are very difficult to break into,? Bouchard said. ‘There’s a high price of admission, and just pretending to be somebody who likes kids is not enough is not enough; some of these groups require you to show yourself show yourself violating a child. It’s a really sick world.?
And, he warned parents, don’t fool yourself into believing boys are less vulnerable than girls. They’re not.
‘You don’t need to hover over them,? he said. ‘But if a phone rings or somebody knocks on the front door, you as a parent say, ‘who is that???
The same logic, he said, should apply when kids are online.
‘It’s scary and fast,? he said. ‘You have to be engaged you have to get up to speed. Your kids will run circles around you.?
Another speaker, FBI Special Agent Jason Bollinger told the story of 14-year-old ‘Mary? who disappeared from her home late one night. When the police began investigating, they discovered the hard drive missing from the family computer.
Investigations turned up no leads until a letter from Mary arrived in the mail with a California postmark.
Authorities finally tracked Mary down out west, where she was alone in the house while the predator who kidnapped her’although she went willingly’was at work.
Mary, Bollinger said, had fallen in love with her predator after months of talking to him online.
It’s an occurrence, he said, typical for girls who fall victim to such crimes.

Cheryl McGinnis, Clarkston school board trustee attended the talk with Superintendent Al Roberts and other administers.
‘It was informative,? she said. ‘It’s a great platform for our building parent groups to spin off at meetings, and find ways to bring the information forward to other parents.?
McGinnis admitted she doesn’t know every person her 16-year-old son talks to online, but said she intended to go home and talk to him again, reaffirm things they’ve discussed in the past about how to keep himself safe online.
‘We have to find different vehicles of communication,? she said. ‘We as parents get lax about what our kids are doing on the internet. We need to be over their shoulders constantly and reaffirm that there are boundaries. Kids want boundaries, and we need to enforce them.?
Margaret Purves, a Clarkston-area grandmother, said she didn’t realize Internet predators were such a widespread problem.
‘I know that you don’t know who you’re talking to when you go on the Internet,? she said, noting she planned to she planned to go home and share the information with her grandson’s parents. ‘But you always thing the bad guy is some scruffy-looking greasy bearded person.?
Quite the contrary.
According to the information presented, predators are usually professionally employed white males between 25 and 45 years old. And many times they’re employed in occupations that work closely with children.
Several people who attended the meeting brought their children.
‘They don’t hear the stories we hear,? said Mary Stechschulte, who drove to Clarkston Junior High from Oxford with her teenage daughter and a friend. ‘I wanted them to hear firsthand what can happen.?
And hear they did.
With her daughter’s permission, Stechschulte talked about an online relationship the 16-year-old has cultivated with an individual living in Florida over the past 7 months.
While the young woman is convinced her friend is the person he claims to be’a 17-year-old boy who lives with his parents in the Sunshine State and plans to visit Stechschulte’s daughter over spring break, others were a little more skeptical and advised her stop the communication immediately, or to proceed with extreme caution.
The following sources offer a wealth of resources and further information for keeping kids safe online:
‘Sheriff’s Community Liaison: 248-858-1947
‘National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: 1-800-THE LOST
‘www.netsmartz.org
‘www.cybertipline.com