Please read this everyone!
A Must Read for All.....
Who have children or grandchildren
EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ ALL OF THIS &
HAVE YOUR CHILDREN READ IT TOO!
After tossing her books on the sofa, she decided to
grab a snack and get on-line . She logged on under
her screen name By Angel 213. She checked her
Buddy List and saw GoTo123 was on.
She sent him an instant message:
By Angel 213:
Hi. I'm glad you are on! I thought someone was
following me home today. It was really weird!
GoTo123:
LOL You watch too much TV. Why would someone
be following you? Don't you live in a safe
neighborhood?
By Angel 213:
Of course I do. LOL I guess it was my imagination
cuz' I didn't see anybody when I looked out.
GoTo123:
Unless you gave your name out on-line.
You haven't done that have you?
By Angel 213:
Of course not. I'm not stupid you know.
GoTo123:
Did you have a softball game after school today?
By Angel 213:
Yes and we won!!
GoTo123:
That's great! Who did you play?
By Angel 213:
We played the Hornets. LOL. Their uniforms
are so gross! They look like bees. LOL
GoTo123:
What is your team called?
By Angel 213:
We are the Canton Cats. We have tiger paws
on our uniforms. They are really cool.
GoTo123:
Did you pitch?
By Angel 213:
No I play second base. I got to go. My homework has
to be done before my parents get home. I don't want
them mad at me. Bye!
GoTo123:
Catch you later. Bye
Meanwhile... GoTo123 went to the member menu
and began to search for her profile. When it came up,
he highlighted it and printed it out. He took out a pen
and began to write down what he knew about Angel
so far.
Her name: Shannon
Birthday: Jan. 3, 1985
Age: 13
State where she lived: North Carolina
Hobbies: softball, chorus, skating & going to the mall.
Besides this information, he knew she lived in Canton
because she had just told him. He knew she stayed by
herself until 6:30 p.m. every afternoon until her parents
came home from work. He knew she played softball on
Thursday afternoons on the school team, and the team
was named the Canton Cats.
Her favorite number 7 was printed on her jersey.
He knew she was in the eighth grade at the Canton
Jr. High School . She had told him all this in the
conversations they had on- line. He had enough
information to find her now.
Shannon didn't tell her parents about the incident on
the way home from the ballpark that day. She didn't
want them to make a scene & stop her from walking
home from the softball games. Parents were always
overreacting & hers were the worst. It made her wish
she was not an only child. Maybe if she had brothers
& sisters, her parents wouldn't be so overprotective.
By Thursday, Shannon had forgotten about the footsteps
following her. Her game was in full swing when suddenly
she felt someone staring at her. It was then that the memory
came back. She glanced up from her second base position
to see a man watching her closely.
He was leaning against the fence behind first base & he smiled
when she looked at him. He didn't look scary and she quickly
dismissed the sudden fear she had felt.
After the game, he sat on a bleacher while she talked to the
coach. She noticed his smile once again as she walked past
him. He nodded & she smiled back. He noticed her name on
the back of her shirt. He knew he had found her.
Quietly, he walked a safe distance behind her. It was only a
few blocks to Shannon 's home, & once he saw where she lived
he quickly returned to the park to get his car .
Now he had to wait. He decided to get a bite to eat until
the time came to go to Shannon 's house. He drove to a
fast food restaurant and sat there until time to make his move.
Shannon was in her room later that evening when she
heard voices in the living room.
"Shannon, come here," her father called. He sounded upset
& she couldn't imagine why. She went into the room to see !
the man from the ballpark sitting on the sofa.
"Sit down," her father began, "this man has just
told us a most interesting story about you."
Shannon sat back. How could he tell her parents anything?
She had never seen him before today!
"Do you know who I am, Shannon ?" the man asked.
"No," Shannon answered.
"I am a police officer and your online friend,
GoTo123."
Shannon was stunned. "That's impossible! GoTo123
is a kid my age! He's 14. And he lives in Michigan !"
The man smiled. "I know I told you all that, but it wasn't true.
You see, Shannon , there are people on-line who pretend to be
kids; I was one of them. But while others do it to injure kids &
hurt them, I belong to a group of parents who do it to protect
kids from predators. I came here to find you to teach you how
dangerous it is to talk to people on-line. You told me enough
about yourself to make it easy for me to find you. You named
the school you went to, the name of your ball team and the
position you played. The number and name on your jersey just
made finding you a breeze."
Shannon was stunned. "You mean
you don't live in Michigan ?"
He laughed. "No, I live in Raleigh . It made you
feel safe to think I was so far away, didn't it?"
She nodded.
"I had a friend whose daughter was like you. Only she wasn't
as lucky. The guy found her & murdered her while she was
home alone. Kids are taught not to tell anyone when they are
alone, yet they do it all the time on-line. The wrong people trick
you into giving out information a little here and there on-line.
Before you know it, you have told them enough for them to find
you without even realizing you have done it. I hope you've
learned a lesson from this and won't do it again. Tell others about
this so they will be safe too?"
"It's a promise!"
That night Shannon and her Dad and Mom all knelt down
together and thanked God for protecting Shannon from
what could have been a tragic situation.
*****NOW*****
Please send this to as many people as you
can to teach them not to give any
information about themselves
This world we live in today is too
dangerous to even give out
your age, let alone
anything else.
EVEN FORWARD THIS TO PEOPLE WITHOUT
KIDS SO THEY CAN SEND IT TO FRIENDS
THAT DO HAVE CHILDREN OR
GRANDCHILDREN.
wow i am so scared now i have a little girl called shannon and she not much younger and she goes on comp
does any one have anything they can help me with as in keeping her safe i do all the norm but as i have just seen parent control doesnt always work as she could tell them a tiny bit about her self
omg what can i doi am gonna show her this an see it that helps
thanks huni this is a real eye opener if i send u my email addy can u send me this so i can forward it please
xxxx
omg how scary is that! its worrying how easily she gave out information without even thinking about what she was doing!
that is really frightening. thanks for posting the warning. its scary to think that despite being so careful how easy it would be for a kid to give away enough info to be tracked down.
I can't believe I violated my own rule about checking everything for hoaxes. See link below. So it seems the story is not true, but was generated to illustrate how easy it is to get info-so my apologies on the innacuracy, but message still valid.
i dont care if it not true it just goes to show how easy it could be done i will still be showing this to daughter to show here
she dont need to no it not true
thanks for emailing it me babe
xxx
The only thing as parents we can do is educate our children about using the internet and the dangers that exist online. Parental control software will never be a solution, and can give a false sense of security.
The internet can be dangerous, but so is everything else in life. Walking down the street, driving a car, even being in school (as events in America remind us) - I don't think we should stop children using the internet as cases like this are very rare, but we can educate our children to minimise the chances of anything happening.
All just IMHO 🙂
thnaks rob i have shown her this anyway just o show her how easy it can be done any way
she is a sensible kids and i make sure i am close by when she on the net just in case and she doesnt really enter chat rooms
she has msn but i guess u can only get to it if u give ya email out cant u
thanks for the advice anyway babe
xxx