Area law-enforcement agencies are making a timely effort to target online predators of children. Parents can support their work by knowing where their children are going on the Internet.
The days are long past when you can assume your children are safe just because they're at home with you.
Even while at home, children and teenagers can become unwitting victims of predators. These predators talk online with youths about sex, and sometimes lure them to meetings where abuse happens.
Parents can block Web sites and check behind their children to see where they've gone. There are plenty of programs and resources available to help with that.
Combating predators is worth every effort, both on the part of parents and law enforcement. Here's just one example of how widespread the problem is: As law-enforcement agencies held a press conference Monday to announce their regional task force against online predators, a deputy on a laptop held an online conversation with a man whom investigators consider a predator, the Journal's John Hinton reported.
We've all seen the news stories about children who've been lured out of their homes by predators. The problem hits home.
An online sting operation in Guilford County in 2006 led to the arrests of 10 people who traveled there to have sex with a person they thought was a child. Online predators are also a threat in Forsyth County, Sheriff Bill Schatzman said, and he looks forward to his office beefing up its work against them through the task force.
Abused children are often left with scars that haunt them the rest of their lives. Some grow up to be abusers.
The Guilford County Sheriff's Office is starting the task force with almost $476,000 in federal money. The sheriff's office is working on the effort with the U.S. Attorney's Office and six local sheriff's offices, including Forsyth, Davidson and Rockingham. The money will go to pay for laptops, software and training for deputies in tracking online predators, and for a full-time salary for a deputy to pursue predators.
Tracking predators is costly, time-consuming work in a time when sheriff's offices are often strapped for adequate financing. The task force should also enhance cooperation between sheriff's offices, especially in cases where a predator's victims are in neighboring counties.
To its credit, the U.S. Justice Department is making the education of parents a big part of its push. It's releasing public-service announcements that in addition to warning potential predators that exploiting children online is a federal crime, educate parents about the dangers their children face online.
The task force is needed. But it can't be successful unless parents give it their full backing -- and give their children their full attention and protection.
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