Scary+Internet+Story

Claire is 14 years old. One evening she was on MSN when an unknown email address added her as a contact. The email gave her the impression that the person was a teenager so Claire assumed it was someone she had met before and added the person to her contacts. Jack's display picture was of a cute boy who looked to be about 16.

They started off Instant Messaging about normal stuff such as ASL (Age, Sex, Location). But then the questions got more specific...and more inappropriate. He asked her what school she went to and how far she had gone sexually. He was persistent in asking for photos of Claire and her friends and he even asked her to use her webcam to have cybersex. Claire was freaked out so she blocked him and deleted Jack from her contacts.

The next night, Claire got an IM from her friend Bec. But Bec was not saying the normal things...she was asking for photos of Claire and her friends in bikinis and asking for cybersex over the wecam. It all sounded very much like Jack...

Claire learned the next day that about 20 of the girls in her grade had all had problems with Jack. They realized that he must have hacked into someone's account and gotten all of the girls' contacts. The girls knew that they had to tell their parents, their teacher, and their principal.

The police became involved and all the girls were warned never to send photos or information to anyone they didn't know. Jack was eventually caught and (surprise surprise) was not a cute, 16 year old boy, but rather, a 50 year old man who had a history of harrassing young girls over the internet.

The Internet can be a very dangerous place. Learn how to protect yourself!

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