I saw that too and thought the same thing - what is the world coming to!! And then today, I watched the story on the Enron Skilling/Lay verdict and was thinking about all that kind of arrogance and greed and thinking there are sure alot of people who do all kinds of "bad" things. I suppose people have been thinking this throughout history. Now we just hear so much about all these kinds of things in the media. It makes you think half the people out there are some kind of unsavory characters but the truth is your average good person isn't all that newsworthy. I do wonder though if things are getting worse. Sometimes I think our society has deteriorated due to a few hundred years of great freedom and an ever decreasing amount of accountability.

I'm not sure it was the Dateline you saw, but I attended a presentation by a cop who assisted in at least one Dateline episode. He now goes around the country making presentations because he feels he can reach more people. As part of his demonstration, he logged on to a chatroom and pretended to be a 13 or 14 year old girl. Within a few minutes, a pedophile type approached him. Very creepy.

The cop said that guys with these urges have always been out there. It is just that with the internet and its chatrooms and instant messaging and so on that they can live out their fantasies. Young kids feel safe in their homes and may unintentionally reveal more than they recognize to their new found friends -- who may pose as someone much younger. They do not realize that by mentioning their town and that they scored the winning point at a recent sports competition that another person could track down their identity.

The cop said a screen name that shows gender and age will be much more likely to attract predators, e.g. "Lisa91", than a neutral screen name. He also recommending keeping the computer in a public place and not in the kid's bedroom and to monitor your kid such as seeing what he or she has posted on MySpace. He also mentioned installing tracking software on the computer to see what sites your kid has visited.

While internet predators are real, I happen to believe that greater dangers are posed by people kids know: the *funny* uncle, mom's boyfriend, the step-dad, the teacher, the clergyperson, etc. Same with kidnapping; most are the other parent, not a stranger.

True, a big part of parenting is protecting your kid. But it is also learning to give them independence. The big trick is when and how much and to know they will make mistakes. You don't want a kid going off to college incapable of doing anything and making independent judgments! JMHO

"Everything is meaningless," says the Teacher, "utterly meaningless!" What do people get for all their hard work? Generations come and go, but nothing really changes. The sun rises and sets and hurries around to rise again. The wind blows south and north, here and there, twisting back and forth, getting nowhere. The rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows again to the sea. Everything is so weary and tiresome! No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content. History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. What can you point to that is new? How do you know it didn't already exist long ago? We don't remember what happened in those former times. And in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now. Â I devoted myself to search for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done in the world. I soon discovered that God has dealt a tragic existence to the human race. Everything under the sun is meaningless, like chasing the wind. What is wrong cannot be righted. What is missing cannot be recovered.

The teacher was Solomon.

So we should just sit and let these creeps do this to these kids???????

SCREW THAT!! Let some bleeding heart try and stop me!! I'll drop em where they stand. You want to feel sympathetic toward these guys? Fine-- lets get em off the street and in jail, and then you can feel all the sympathy you want. Until then, I'll do everything I can to get them off the street and away from the kids.

END OF DAMN STORY!!

God bless the Dateline crew, Bill O'Rielly, John Walsh, Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Phil, and all the others who use the media to bring this issue to the front of public consciousness!!

Bill...Uh...just so you KNOW: I FEEL NO SYMPATHY OR EMPATHY. NONE. NADA. I'VE GOT A 48 YEAR OLD CREEPO THREE DOORS DOWN THAT LIKES MY 13 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER...AND IS DOING WHATEVER HE CAN TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR HIM TO BE AROUND HER "LEGALLY"!!!

I'm just saying above that there IS NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN. With the Internet and technology, they're finding new ways to seduce and defraud. Fortunately, there are officials and concerned people on the look out for these perverts.

I trust few people. I don't even allow my children to have sleep-overs or go to other people's homes for spend the night parties because I don't want to subject, introduce, or expose my children to ANY corruption until they are old enough to identify perversion, know how to handle the situation, and protect themselves. I think they may be able to do that when they're about 40.