Chances are, if you have a teenager at home, he or she is on Myspace or Facebook. But police say, you need to monitor their online activity because there could be trouble.
One mother made a shocking discovery that a 40-year-old man was harassing her teenage daughter online!
Seventeen-year-old Jennifer Cook is a high school junior. She's a cheerleader and involved in the school band. Like many of her peers, she has a MySpace account. But, by setting up that profile, she unknowingly set herself up for a nightmare.
"Last year around this time, this guy messaged me. I didn't know who he was, so I just ignored it. He just kept sending me messages and messages, like paragraph long messages. I ignored it, thought nothing of it, come May or June he finally stopped messaging me so I thought it was over with. Then, in September, he found my cell phone number," Jennifer said.
His name was listed as "Mick," and his profile said he was in his 40s. One day, around 3:00 in the morning, he called Jennifer.
"That day, the following day, I went to Officer Holmes and I had voicemails that he left me. That's how it all started. We thought it would have stopped by then," Jennifer said.
Officer David Holmes is the school resource officer at Jennifer’s school. He told Jennifer and her mother to send "Mick" a message saying they'd contacted police, demanding that he stop contacting her.
"I was scared to death. Not knowing who this person was, what his intentions were, because you see so many predators on television and you don't think it's going to happen to you or your child," Lori Cook said.
Mick didn't stop messaging Jennifer, saying he felt 'connected' to her. The Cooks were terrified.
"You never know, I mean is this guy next door? Is he in another country? Do we have to worry? It's very scary," Lori said. "We would like to press charges, but then again, we don't know who this person is. The police department is still investigating it. We'll just take it one step at a time."
Police say the suspect "Mick" is from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. He is now being closely monitored.
Experts say teenagers always feel that this will never happen to them. That's why they say it's up to parents to make sure they closely supervise their kids when they are on the internet and computers in bedrooms are not a good idea.
