You read “Through His Webcam, Boy Joins a Sordid Online World, and you get really freaking creeped out about what can happen to kids connected to creepy adults through the internet.
Then you can read something like The Big Al Ramos story and realize that you don’t need the internet and webcams for creepy adults to do horrible things to children. The Catholic Church heirarchy is just as effective a tool of molestation, and I’m sure there are many, many others.
There are some really insane child porn laws out there (e.g. if someone sends you child porn in email and you don’t open it, you’re still guilty because it was on your computer), and I’ve generally thought they were stupid, and well, I still do, but I can sure understand the motivation for them with investigators finding this kind of stuff happening.
So how *do* you protect your kids? Best first step I can think of to start off with is do your damndest to make sure your kids aren’t afraid to tell you anything, no matter what. Another is to give your kids the respect that you expect them to demand from other adults. Any other ideas?
