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By GAY GRIESBACH – GM Today Staff |
November 15, 2006 |
TOWN OF JACKSON – A brutally graphic image of a naked man appears on the screen for a split second.
A collective gasp is heard from the 250 parents gathered at Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School to hear a recent presentation, “The Dark Side of the Internet.”
The image was not aimed toward adult viewing. It was from a man who thinks he is showing the video to a 13-year-old girl.
“By sitting in front of that computer, (your child’s) innocence can be taken away,” said Special Agent Eric Szatkowski from the Wisconsin Department of Justice, one of the country’s leading undercover officers in the apprehension of online predators. “Kids aren’t getting hurt on the streets, but in their own homes. They never have to leave the house.”
Szatkowski knows his stuff, having been instrumental in the apprehension of more than 70 adults who have preyed on children using the Internet.
Graphic images are not difficult to find. Szatkowski came up with the sexual socialization in less than one minute in a Yahoo chat room.
When Szatkowski, an agent for 16 years, was first given the assignment to get online as a young girl or boy to hunt sexual predators seven years ago, he was skeptical, but after arresting more than 70 offenders, he is convinced the danger is real.
Children most at risk when it comes to Internet pornography include:
- seventh- to ninth-grade teenage girls;
- children who have been physically or sexually abused;
- children living in an unstable family environment;
- those with low self-esteem;
- the naive or curious;
In 2000, a survey showed that one in four 10- to 17-year-olds had exposure to unwanted sexually inappropriate material, Szatkowski said. In 2005, that number grew to one in three.
The sexualization of children through advertising and television is made worse by the Internet, Szatkowski said.
“They are not just looking, but participating,” he said.
Social sites that less savvy parents may find innocuous, such as Facebook, MySpace, Xanga or Eyeball Chat, are information highways for the sexual predator who can find phone numbers, addresses, photos and what school your child attends.
And don’t expect to catch your children at it.
Szatkowski cited anecdote after anecdote about children caught in compromising situations that parents were not aware of because of the child’s ability to circumvent parental controls.
And these men are not only on the Internet, they are in our midst, he said.
A 54-year-old Indiana man was apprehended at a Madison shopping center where he was waiting for a 14-year-old girl he met online, Szatkowski said. After the man was arrested, a hatchet and bindings were found in his car.
The girl told a friend about the meeting and that friend told her parents.
“It’s not tattling, not snitching, it’s watching the backs of your friends,” said Szatkowski.
Another way children can be victimized is when pornographic photos of them are reproduced. In that category, Szatkowski said he has made so many arrests that he has quit counting “and the vast majority are molesting our kids as well.”
He said not only do predators collect these images, the Internet has provided a vehicle for them to find kindred spirits and trade and spread images.
In 2005, Szatkowski was instrumental in the arrest of town of Erin resident Gerald D. Schaefer. The Division of Criminal Investigation seized one computer hard drive and found more than 100 paper copy images of prepubescent children posing in nude lewd positions, according to the criminal complaint.
Schaefer pleaded guilty to three of the five felony charges and is awaiting sentencing.
