ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando police Detective Lori Fiorino works in the shadows of the department's Internet Crimes Against Children unit, spotlighting the most dangerous, disturbing deviants.
She spends her days and nights messaging and chatting with mostly men who believe she is a child.
Some message her at 1 or 2 a.m.
"Every day," Fiorino said. "Right now, I'm talking with at least 14 people who want to exploit a child. Some think I'm 13, some think I'm 12."
The conversations start when Fiorino posts a profile on social media sites posing as a young boy or girl.
The adult at the other end of the keyboard often tries to transition the conversation from the internet to text messaging on a cellphone.
Fiorino always makes it clear the adult understands he or she is chatting with a child. She said usually that makes predators more interested in continuing the conversation.
"That should be your cue to let me get out of this conversation, that you don't want to communicate with a kid," Fiorino said.
Recently, Fiorino said a man from Marion County contacted her believing he was messaging a 14-year-old girl.
The man at the other end of the keyboard was Jarrad Kinder, a 34-year-old man from Marion County, according to Fiorino.
Without her asking, he sent her lewd pictures and videos, she said.
He told her he live-streamed pornographic shows and said the child could make $500 by participating in the sex shows, Fiorino said.
He even told her to drop out of school and sent her two driver's licenses.
"When you're making a lot of money, I guess he didn't think school was necessary anymore," Fiorino said. "Most of these guys realize they're going to be meeting with a child, 14, 13, or 12-year-old. A lot of times just so they don't get caught with a minor they may find driver's licenses that look like what the child decoy looks like."
Fiorino said when Kinder told her to run away and planned to pick her up, insisting she not get caught on surveillance video, she arranged to meet him and arrested him.
If not, Fiorino believes Kinder would have kidnapped a real child.
"There would have been a real child that would have been with him making money by performing sex acts," Fiorino said. "A 14-year-old with a whole different identity away from your home."
The last time News 6 spotlighted Fiorino, she had just arrested a man who she said was communicating with her attempting to make child pornography with an 8-year-old child.
After the News 6 report, Fiorino received a dozen requests to speak to parents and schools about the dangers of allowing children unsupervised access to the internet.
She provided her email address if you'd like to contact her: loriana.fiorino@cityoforlando.net
Fiorino said any unsuspecting child can fall prey to a predator over the internet if not monitored.
"We hear in the cases where there is a real live victim, 'I would have never imagined this happening to me, or my kid,' and I hear that over and over and over," Fiorino said. "That is the sad reality of it."
Fiorino said parents should never allow children to be alone with internet-connected devices.
Parents should find out who their children are talking to and parents should never be afraid to take a device away from a child at any moment.
"They know way more about the internet than the parents do," Fiorino said. "There's nothing wrong with sitting down with your kid and asking show me the apps out there, how they work."
To parents worried about invading a child's privacy, Fiorino said: Don't be.
"To me that sounds absolutely ludicrous," Fiorino said. "Your 10-year-old doesn't need privacy, he needs protection from the internet that you're giving him access to every day."
If you want to learn more about communicating with your children, monitoring their internet usage, or installing internet-monitoring software, check out the resources below:
www.missingkids.org/netsmartz/home
www.netsmartzkids.org
www.nsteens.org
www.fbi.gov/resources/parents