VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – Are parents getting the message to protect their children?
In August, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood took action after a 12-year-old girl allowed a man she’d met online into her bedroom and he raped her.
Chitwood started bringing together detectives and parents to drive home the sick reality and the consequences of allowing internet access unmonitored.
Since then, detectives have gotten through to hundreds, potentially thousands of parents.
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
Volusia County Sheriff’s Detectives Lance LaMee and Amanda Cloutier invited News 6 into the Child Exploitation Unit to share what they’re dealing with - and not dealing with - on a daily basis.
They investigate on average 65 cases a month involving children in Volusia County.
“And in an effort to try and reduce those numbers, we started hosting the Internet Safety Forums where we invited parents to just talk about what’s going on, the cases were seeing online, the trends and what parents need to know and what they look out for,” LaMee said.
The detectives scheduled four Internet Safety Forums across Volusia County in the evenings to make it convenient for parents. That turned into 20.
“A lot of parents realize that they really don’t know a lot about the social media and what their kids are actually doing on the internet,” LaMee said. “A lot of them were shocked, they had no idea. We actually listed case examples. We had one case involving children as young as eight, sometimes even younger. We told people at these forums you have to stop thinking of the social media as harmless entertainment. Don’t think of it as entertainment, think of it as digital house keys. We have had multiple cases for teenagers where young females have invited men to the house or inside the house and they have no idea who these men are.”
LaMee said at one forum, parents live-streamed the presentation to other parents at home all over Volusia County.
He said the message seems to be getting through to parents.
“We’re seeing a drop in like the self-production [of child pornography] cases we call them, where students, elementary school students and middle school students, are taking photos or videos of themselves and sending them online,” LaMee said.
Det. Cloutier said they’re “slowly chipping away.”
If parents or educators would like the detectives to host the Internet Safety Forum at their school, church or community center, you can contact the Sheriff’s Office at CommunityRelations@volusiasheriff.gov.
“They can reach out to the Sheriff’s Office and if we can accommodate them we will,” LaMee said.
You can watch the Internet Safety Forum here:
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched a new campaign Wednesday aimed at raising awareness about child exploitation online. The Know2Protect program partners with tech companies, sports leagues and youth groups to show parents and kids how to recognize child exploitation and abuse and how to report it.
Head to the Know2Protect website to learn more.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: