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She was 13. She was lonely, depressed and hurting.
She didn't have any friends and no one understood her.
She tried reaching out to people, but was only denied
with an embarrassing scene. At lunch she sat by herself,
or sometimes even hid in the bathroom stall.
Being at home was no different. Her parents neglected
her, and would never listen to what she had to say.
They never made an effort to be involved, and would
always ignore her cries for attention.
Alone and unhappy, her only desire was to have someone
listen to her, and agree with the way she was feeling.
The only thing she could turn to was an online chat
site.
Teens looking for emotional support
Many teenagers go into the sites with innocent intentions,
not aware that one in four children in chat rooms on the
Internet will be solicited by an online predator.
This may seem unrealistic, but the sad truth is that these
situations happen every day. All kids want love, attention
and affection, which makes them vulnerable to online predators.
These online predators, also known as pedophiles, take
advantage of an unfortunate situation, and try to offer
support, only wanting to fill their own purposes.
Whatever the situation may be, the children are always
the victims. Period.
No matter how teens might end up on the sites or how much
they put themselves on the line, they are never at fault.
Fighting back
Not only are chat rooms dangerous, but sites like MySpace
and Facebook make an online predator's job so much easier.
With just a click of the mouse, a pedophile can easily
find a teenager's age, height, personal features and maybe
even location.
Fortunately, more and more states are cracking down against
online predators.
On Jan. 14, Texas was the only state in the nation to
not sign an agreement with MySpace aimed at protecting
children from online sexual predators.
Oregon has also taken a step to stop online child abuse.
For the first time, Internet pedophiles can be arrested
and convicted for "luring," an early step in
child abuse.
Marion County prosecutor Jodie Bureta believes action
needs to be taken now.
"We no longer have to wait until abuse physically
occurs in order to catch these people, hold them accountable
and protect these kids," she told the Register-Guard.
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Joplin was able to rise from the ashes because of help from everyone. And I am eternally grateful to anyone who made that possible.
