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Predators A 14-year-old Oahu boy went online one morning while his parents were out of town. He went straight to a Web site that lists personal ads from adult men looking to have sex with teenage boys.
on the ’Net
Some isle kids put themselves
Facts and guidelines
in danger by their online habitsBy Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.comThe teen responded to an ad and within an hour, an adult in his late 30s was at the boy's home where they engaged in oral sex.
Scenarios like this one, which took place last month, are becoming all too common, say Honolulu police who learned of the incident after the teen told another adult.
While they do not keep specific figures, police say too many Hawaii teens are logging on to the Internet and, either willingly or unwittingly, hooking up with adults. Whether they are looking for sex, companionship or an escape from boredom, these children are courting disaster, police and other officials say.
"They're playing with fire, they don't know what they're getting into," says Detective Chris Duque, HPD's computer and Internet expert. "These kids are getting online and they don't think they're going to get hurt.
"But some of these guys are serious, they're looking for action."
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Police fear Hawaii will soon see an Internet liaison lead to tragedy."Sooner or later you're going to have a guy that's just going to enslave them or kill them, especially if the kid wants to back out of the situation," said Duque. "It's just a matter of time."
In fact, a Liliha girl in her early teens was recently sexually assaulted by a man in his mid-20s whom she met in a chat room, according to police, who say they believe the suspect has left Oahu.
How often these encounters happen no one knows because often no one tells. Or, as in the case of the 14-year-old Oahu boy, the youth is unwilling to cooperate with police.
Still, on Kauai alone over the past year, there have been four cases of teenage girls leaving the island to meet someone they contacted over the Internet.
"A lot of the cases involve single-parent homes," said Kauai Police Detective Eric Shibuya. "The parent isn't spending enough time with the child and the kid is looking for an out.
"And then there are these guys online that make the child feel wanted ... the girls in these cases opened up and told these guys all their problems."
Two Kauai teenage girls flew to San Diego to meet someone they contacted over the Internet and whom they believed to be another teenager. Shibuya said the suspect, actually a 22-year-old male, sent the money to buy the airline tickets.
"One of the girls just wanted to get away and the other girl followed her," he said. "To them it didn't matter what the consequences were."
San Diego law enforcement arrested the suspect at the airport and sent the two girls back to Kauai.
Two other Kauai girls were also recently reported missing after they traveled to Oahu to visit someone they had met on the Internet and have since returned to their families.
In another case from the Garden Isle, Michael Solis Cabrera, 34, was charged with enticing a 13-year-old girl to his Kauai hotel room, then videotaping their sexual encounters. According to a federal court document, the victim met "Mike" in an Internet chat room and had sex six times with him on May 15 and 16.
Shibuya and others who work with Kauai youth say it is apparent some girls are not considering the danger.
"We still talk to strangers here because we're a small town," said LaVerne Bishop, Program Director for Hale 'Opio Kauai Inc., a youth-outreach program. "Some of these kids maybe aren't streetwise and therefore are more susceptible to get sucked in by these predators."
But Bishop said the problem is not any worse on Kauai than anywhere else. "Kids look for things to do ... they can get bored to death here or the middle of Manhattan."
Indeed, a quick check of Web sites that allow Internet users of all ages to post free personal ads shows dozens of listings from teenagers from Kona to Kaneohe to Lihue, some of them as young as 13 years old.
The ads mostly give a limited description of the user, an e-mail name, an age, a state of residence and hobbies and interests. However some teenagers display scanned pictures of themselves and offer links to personal homepages with more information.
One 14-year-old Oahu girl also displays her picture and offers the name of her high school and her grade. Another 14-year-old girl from Maui displays her picture, gives a first name and lists her marital status as "single and looking," her occupation as "anything you want me to be."
Some teens have gone even further.
A couple of years ago, three teenage girls were arrested after police found an Internet Web site where they advertised themselves as prostitutes.
"There were pictures of the girls and a phone number to call," said Honolulu police Sgt. Gary Sunada. "We picked the hotel and sent our undercover officers to meet them."
"One of them tried to run away with one of the officer's wallets ... We arrested one 16-year-old girl as a runaway and two 17-year-old girls for prostitution."
Lorraine Faithful, executive director of Sisters Offering Support which helps prostitutes leave the sex trade, says "the Internet is just another tool to meet people and kids are using it.
"Many are too young to have found their own identity yet and find themselves hooked on the attention some stranger gives them.
"We know it's out there and we know it's happening ... kids are seeking attention and seeking love and they're seeking it in the wrong way. That's when they're vulnerable. That's when they get exploited."
Police and other officials encourage parents to speak with their children about the Internet and chat rooms, and to establish rules, especially the age-old adage of not speaking to strangers.
"I used to get asked ASL (age/sex/location) all the time," said a 14-year-old girl from Windward Oahu who asked not to be identified. "I said I was female, older -- 18 usually -- and that I lived in Hawaii but that's all."
Now, she said, her parents limit her to two hours on the computer a day and she can only speak with friends she already knows.
"I don't (online) chat with strangers anymore," she says. "I sort of realized that it was stupid and there's better ways to meet people."
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Site gives parents
‘Internet rules’The following is a list of hints for parents regarding Internet rules for their children as compiled by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Information is online at www.missingkids.com.
>> Prepare, print-out, sign, and periodically review "house rules" regarding computer and Internet use. Your rules should be posted on or near the monitor. A "house rules" sample is displayed on the www.missingkids.com homepage under "Internet Rules.">> Look into safeguarding programs or options your online service provider offers. These can include monitoring or filtering capabilities.
>> Always read a Web site's privacy policy before giving any personal information. Also make sure that a site offers a secure connection before giving credit card information.
>> Web sites for children are not to request personal information without a parent's permission. Talk to your children about what personal information is and why you should never give it to people online.
>> Talk to children about never meeting an online acquaintance face-to-face.
>> Do not respond to offensive or dangerous e-mail, chat, or other communication. Report it to local law enforcement. Do not delete the offensive or dangerous e-mail, instead turn off the monitor, and contact local law enforcement.
>> Keep the computer in the family room or another open area of your home.
>> Let your children show you what they know online. Visit their favorite sites or chat rooms.
>> Have your children use child-friendly search engines when completing homework.
>> Make sure kids are exchanging e-mails with only people you and they know, and only let them use chat areas that you supervise.
>> Make sure you are aware of any other computers your child may be using.
>> Internet accounts should be in the parent's name with parents having the primary screen name and controlling passwords, blocking and filtering devices.
>> Children should not complete a profile for a service provider and children's screen names should be nondescript so as not to identify that the user is a child.
>> If you suspect online "stalking" or sexual exploitation of a child, report it to your local law-enforcement agency. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has a system, called the "CyberTipline," for identifying online predators and child pornographers. Leads forwarded to the site will be acknowledged and shared with the appropriate law enforcement agency for investigation.
Communication key to finding online abuse
Honolulu police warn that victims of sexual exploitation come from all walks of life. They are both male and female children who often:
>> Crave attention, affection, praise, rewards and approval.Police say victims of sexual exploitation often exhibit changes in behavior patterns that can alert persons to their situation. These include:
>> Lack supervision.
>> Lack strong moral or religious values.
>> Have an unstable home environment.
>> Spend more than a normal amount of time online.
>> Abrupt or recent changes in mood, attitude and behavior."Notice how they carry themselves, whether they have age-appropriate peers and how often they spend time with them," said Patrick McGivern, a psychologist who has a practice on Kauai and Oahu. "There's an unconscious motivation for a youngster to contact others to pay them attention."
>> Withdrawal from family and/or peers.
>> Changes in behavior at school.
>> Having more money than usual, unexplained new clothes or toys (presents from the pedophile).
>> Display of sexual behavior or sexual language not consistent with the child's age."The best thing to do is to talk to your kid and ask them how they are feeling ... just ask, that's really the best way."
Study reveals nationwide data on kids' online lives
Local data about what Hawaii youth encounter online is not available. However, a study by the Crimes Against Children Research Center gives a glimpse of what's happening nationally.The 2000 survey was based on interviews from a sample of 1,501 youths, ages 10 to 17, who use the Internet regularly. Highlights from the data include:
>> About one in five received a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet.>> One in 33 received an aggressive sexual solicitation, a solicitor who either asked to meet them somewhere, called them on the telephone, or sent them regular mail, money, or gifts.
>> One in four had an unwanted exposure to pictures of naked people or people having sex.
>> One in 17 was threatened or harassed.
>> About one quarter of the youth who encountered a sexual solicitation or approach told a parent.
>> Almost 40 percent of those reporting an unwanted exposure to sexual material told a parent.
>> Less than 10 percent of sexual solicitations and only 3 percent of unwanted exposure episodes were reported to authorities such as a law-enforcement agency, an Internet service provider, or a hotline.
>> In households with home Internet access, one third had filtering or blocking software on the computer.
Rod Antone, Star-Bulletin