New Weapon Against Child Predators

By Steve Alexander Reporter

It's a partnership that's also designed to protect nation's infrastructure New Weapon Against Child Predators

Published: Tue, April 01, 2008 - 9:44 pm

Steve Alexander

A new program kicked off in Mobile Tuesday night aimed at keeping your children safe when they're on the computer.
The FBI has started a service that partners with private individuals and businesses to share information about predators and anything that might endanger the nation or community.
Its called "InfraGard," which stands for guarding our nation's infrastructure.
Gary Pugh, a representative of the Mobile chapter of the InfraGard Members Alliance, says, "Its an organization of members that works closely with the FBI. It consists of the private sector and (people in fields like) banking, academia, and computers."
Pugh says group members share information about the nation's infrastructure and help protect it "against anything that may be out of the ordinary."
In Tuesday night's class, parents learned about computer-related crime against children.
One lesson they learned was that in minutes, a predator can get information on children in a chat room by looking up their profiles.
And FBI agents say there are other ways children become victims, like on-line gaming.
Angela Tobon, a special agent with the FBI in Mobile, gave this example.
She said, "Children are playing their X box live and they're literally playing with people from around the world. It may be somebody next door, it may be somebody in another country, but they're playing and chatting with them on-line and developing a rapport with them. That just exposes them to more threats."
Some safety tips are common sense, but parents say they can always learn something new.
Ilena Aragon of Mobile said, "From my experience many moons ago in my teenage years, (Iife) is very different."

You can check out another FBI resource, "A Parents Guide to Internet Safety". Just click here.