Fighting Back Against Child Abduction
BY LIZ GOFF

Former police officer Bob Stuber took action in 2000 to help safeguard youngsters against child sex offenders.

The voices on the tape are clear. One is the unmistakable squeak of a prepubescent boy, the other is clearly that of a grown man. Based on the raw language, the tone of his voice and his suggestions, it is also clear that the man is a child predator, seeking sexual contact with the boy or any other child he might charm into meeting with him.

The voices caught on the tape engaged in a total of 53 highly sexually explicit Internet "chats" over a period of seven weeks, police sources said. During their last chat, the man managed to convince the boy to meet him in a fast food restaurant at a shopping mall in the boy's suburban neighborhood.

The man boarded a plane and traveled almost 1,100 miles from Orlando, Florida to meet with the boy. Inside the restaurant, he scanned the crowd, searching for his young prey.

The man approached the youngster with caution. With introductions out of the way, the man put the boy at ease with small talk- conversations about taxi rides, skipping school and the man's job.

Over the French fries, the man asked the boy to accompany him to his motel room, to "do the things" they had talked about in the Internet chat room where the pair first met. And then it really happened.

Houston-based Service Corporation International and Dignity Memorial, established an "Escape School" dedicated to providing parents, grandparents, guardians and anyone else with the means to help prevent child exploitation and abduction.

As the pair stood up and began to leave the restaurant, fellow "diners", a team of plainclothes cops surrounded them. As the man watched in anger and disbelief, the "boy" removed his baseball cap and raised his sweatshirt to reveal a detective's shield.

The man cursed, grunted and shook his head as he realized that the "boy" was not a boy at all. "He" was a female cop, the same officer he had unknowingly discussed having sex with during the 53 taped Internet conversations.

Why did police wait through 53 conversations? Why did they wait until the man suggested sex with the boy before they arrested him? The answer is simple, frustrating and anger-provoking.

It is not illegal for any person to speak, suggest, or act out sexual situations with another person over the Internet, even if they believe the other person is a child. Current laws mandate that any such charges would be an infringement of the individual's right to freedom of speech.

However, it is illegal for an adult to arrange to meet with a person he believes is a minor (under 17 years old), for the purpose of sexual contact. The adult must suggest the sexual contact for the act to be considered a crime, law enforcement sources said. And until legislators act to amend the law, police are forced to track down child sexual predators over the Internet by becoming children themselves.

In most cases, predators log on to an Internet chat room to meet youngsters for a number of reasons, including anonymity. "Remember, the Internet gives these individuals the opportunity and the drive to prey on youngsters without the fear of arrest- until they take that final step where they meet with the youngster," the sources said.

Statistics released by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for the year 2004 (the latest available), indicate that child sex offenders utilized the Internet 6,700 times that year, searching for sex with 12- and 13-year-old children in New York City.

"These people can go online and become whoever they want to be, or whoever they think the child wants them to be," law enforcement sources said. "It gives them a real high."

Part of the problem is the fact that many parents use the Internet as a babysitter. "Kids too often come home from school to an empty house and immediately go online unsupervised," the sources said.

A study conducted in 2002 by the Association of Parents Against Predators, a child Internet advocacy group with offices in Manhattan and Washington, D.C., revealed that 140 of 185 youngsters from upper to middle income families, ages 11-13, said they had carte blanche Internet access with no supervision.

"Faced with the information we now have on the habits and behavior of child sexual predators, those numbers are completely unacceptable," law enforcement sources said.

Youngsters who were victimized online showed a lack of self-esteem, had few or no friends and tended to be left alone over long periods of time, the study showed.

"These are a new generation of Internet superhighway latchkey kids," law enforcement sources said. "It's amazing that we can teach kids not to speak to strangers on the street, while too many parents fail to tell their kids to stay away from strangers on the Internet."

State legislators in 2001 made it more difficult for child predators to reach out and touch their young prey over the Internet. Lawmakers passed the Sexual Assault Reform Act (SARA), hailed as the first major change in the state's 1965 penal law defining sex crimes.

SARA amended Megan's Law to require convicted sex offenders to provide their Internet accounts and screen names for publication on the New York State Sex Offender Registry.

Megan's Law was named for seven-year-old Megan Kanka, who was abducted, raped and murdered by a twice-convicted sex offender who lived across the street from her family's New Jersey home. The law requires recently released child sex offenders to list their name(s), addresses and phone numbers on the state registry within 10 days of parole or probation.

The new SARA provision enhanced Megan's Law by expanding the categories of offenders covered to include Internet child predators. Under Megan's Law, offenders residing in New York state who committed their crimes in other jurisdictions must register in the other jurisdiction as well.

For information on child sex offenders, or for more information on Megan's Law, log on to www.meganslaw.com

Former police officer Bob Stuber took action in 2000 to help safeguard youngsters against child sex offenders. Stuber, sponsored by Houston-based Service Corporation International and Dignity Memorial, established an "Escape School" dedicated to providing parents, grandparents, guardians and anyone else with the means to help prevent child exploitation and abduction.

Escape School trainers are available nationwide to present the facts to community groups, schools, Parent- Teacher Associations, civic associations and other such groups. Law enforcement officials hail the talks as "invaluable" in terms of much-needed guidance and instruction.

The Escape School offers information on preventing child abduction, school violence and "Kid-Safe Cyberspace", Stuber said.

Stuber offered the following "What to do" advice to help parents teach children how to prevent abduction:

+ If a stranger approaches a child on the street and tries to pull him or her into a car or other vehicle, "Take off running," Stuber said. "Run in the opposite direction from the direction of the car. It makes it harder for the predator to reach the child. And by the time the predator catches up to the child, they can be in a crowded area, or near stores where they can seek help."

+ What should your child do if grabbed off the street and forced into the trunk of a car?

"Kick, scream, bang on the trunk," Stuber said. "Parents should teach children how to disconnect tail and brake lights. It's really not hard to do." Statistics show there is a 50 percent chance that police on patrol will see the missing lights and stop the driver, law enforcement sources said. If the vehicle comes to a stop and the child hears voices, teach them to scream at the top of their lungs until someone realizes they are in the trunk.

+ If a stranger tries to abduct a child who is riding a bicycle, "Don't let go of the bike," Stuber said. "Hold on tight, because it's too big and bulky to get into a car without being noticed. And it takes too much time."

"Kick, scream and use the bike as a weapon to get away from the stranger. Use the bike to stop him from overpowering you," Stuber said.

+ "Children should be taught never to unlock a door when they are at home alone," he added. "Tell children to remember they are safe as long as the predator is outside, while they are on the other side of a locked door. And teach them to call 911 immediately if someone tries to break in."

For information on how to contact Stuber, or for information locally on the Escape School, call the Thomas M. Quinn & Sons Funeral Home at 718-721-9200.

Parents can also contact the local police precinct or the Queens District Attorney's Office at 718-286-6315 to file a permanent record of their children's fingerprints, photos and other means of identification for use by law enforcement if the child is ever reported missing or abducted.

Additional information on missing and exploited children and ways to prevent abduction is available by calling the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-The Missing or by visiting www.missingkids. com