Police urge people to watch their space

Lauren Vane

When local teenagers go online to talk and share pictures with

friends in chat rooms on websites, they can access much more than

yearbook photos and a friend’s favorite color.

Promiscuous photographs of young girls in their underwear litter

the popular website MySpace.com, a site that labels itself as “a

place for friends.” By posting personal information on websites such

as this one, police say, minors are making themselves available to

pedophiles. In Laguna Beach, it’s starting to become a problem.

Recently in Laguna, at least one reported sexual assault has

stemmed from a contact that was made on MySpace.com, said Capt.

Danell Adams, of the Laguna Beach Police Department.

“I think that MySpace is a good example of why parents need to pay

very close attention to their children’s use of the Internet,” Adams

said.

Police have been monitoring the website because there have been

concerns about inappropriate photographs of minors that are posted on

the site and the adults who are accessing these photos and then

interacting with minors, Adams said.

“The chat rooms are worrisome,” Adams said.

Anyone who sets up a free account on MySpace.com can access and

talk with members from anywhere and there is even an option to run a

search by age and zip code, making it easy to specifically locate

minors in the Laguna Beach area. Although the website only allows new

members to sign in as 18 and older, it is an obstacle that is easily

avoided. With one click of the mouse, a 14-year-old girl can become

18.

Det. Zach Martinez, an investigator who specializes in crimes

against juveniles, logs in undercover and monitors MySpace.com for at

least one hour every day to protect Laguna Beach minors from becoming

victims of internet pedophiles, Martinez said.

“They [MySpace.com] made it easy for pedophiles to track down kids

who live in this area,” Martinez said.

When Martinez finds racy photographs posted in the online page of

a local teenager, he investigates this person’s “friends,” the people

who visit and talk with the teen, he said. If the teenager looks to

be a minor and any of the friends appear to be adults, Martinez takes

action.

The first step is to contact Laguna Beach High School and verify

the name and age of the minor, Martinez said. Next, Martinez will

call the teenagers and their parents and talk with them about the

dangers of posting provocative pictures and chatting with adults

online, Martinez said.

If enough information is provided in the online profile, Martinez

will sometimes contact any adult who is interacting inappropriately

with a minor online, he said.

Though many of the photographs on MySpace.com depict girls who

look much younger than 18 in sexual poses, the website is not

breaking any laws, as long as the photographs are not pornographic or

showing nudity, Martinez said.

The key to preventing local minors from making online contact with

potential pedophiles is for parents to be involved with their

children’s Internet usage, Adams said.

“The common response is that the kids are more computer savvy than

they [the parents] are,” Martinez said.

Parents should be encouraged to learn about the internet and what

kind of information is available online to their children, Adams

said.

“Complacency is our greatest threat, I have this fear that people

have this feeling that this sort of thing doesn’t happen in Laguna,”

Adams said.