Community center camp counselors ages 14 to 22 and several parents attended the Aug. 2 event spon... Reporter discusses online

Community center camp counselors ages 14 to 22 and several parents attended the Aug. 2 event sponsored by Sunflower House, a child advocacy center.

Eichenwald became nationally known after writing about teenager Justin Berry, 19, an international child pornography star for about five years. Berry testified before Congress, helped convict several child predators and appeared on "Oprah."

"Seat belts" Eichenwald offered are: never consider a person only known online as a friend; never post personal information; treat blog sites like a billboard in a public place; and never meet in person someone you met online.

Eichenwald said pedophiles work together when targeting youths. When chatting online, a youth may think he is speaking to another youth when he is actually speaking with several adults, he said.

"They will have one window open talking to the child," Eichenwald said. "In another window are all his friends giving him tips on how he can get you to do what he wants."

Eichenwald said one group of predators made bets on how many chats would occur before getting a young girl to disrobe on a webcam. Other predators purchase scripted webcam footage to play while speaking to a young person.

"The kid thinks he is talking to another kid," Eichenwald said. "But it's really a 45-year-old man who has traded and e-mailed information about that kid."

Eichenwald said images and personal information on youths is traded like baseball cards among Internet predators and naive youths are the ones providing the pictures and information.

"Some think it's cool to post pictures of themselves stoned, drunk or naked," Eichenwald said. "But sites like myspace and facebook are the Sears catalog for pedophiles. If you think your friends will think these pictures are cool, think what will my school think? What will my parents think? What will I think when I'm 25 or 30 when confronted with an image of myself being a fool?"

Jeff Lanza, Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent, said nothing online is anonymous anymore and pedophiles can be found in unlikely places.

"A 14-year-old girl who had lost her mother went to a chatroom to talk to other kinds who had lost a parent," Lanza said. "She never expected to find a pedophile in that chatroom."

Sgt. Mike Pflannenstiel of the cybercrime unit of the Johnson County Sheriff's Department did not attend the event but agreed with Eichenwald and Lanza.

He said predators use software to capture images and information immediately after posting. Although the information may be removed, a predator most likely already has it saved to a computer, he said.

"(Pedophiles) will take any image, no matter how innocent, and twist and pervert it for their fetish," Pflannenstiel said. "You can innocently post a picture of your child in a raincoat and someone will download that image because they like children in raincoats."

Locally, the county cybercrime unit has arrested 28 people since January in sting operations targeting people attempting to meet in person youths they met online.

In a sting, a detective poses as a girl chatting online. When an adult contacts the "girl," she gives an age under 16. Pflannenstiel said about 70 percent of the adults will drop the chat because the child is "too young." About 19 percent of remaining adults will speak about sex; 11 percent will discuss sex and meeting the child. Of the 11 percent, only 1 percent will attempt a meeting.

Pflannenstiel said these statistics do not include how many people expose themselves to children online, which is an action that cannot yet be prosecuted as a crime.

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