"Within 30 seconds of your child going online, they can be solicited for sex," says Peachtree City Police Corporal Heather Lackey.

WSB's Veronica Waters reports Cpl. Lackey, working the department's Internet Task Force, has made headlines helping snare 18 would-be child predators, most of whom plead guilty to the charges against them rather than going to trial. Three men, however, chose to go to trial; two of those were sentenced to serve 10 years behind bars. The third, sentenced to serve five years, owned a dry cleaning business and is a husband with 2 small kids. One suspect, arrested at Georgia State University, has yet to have his case resolved.

The Task Force is now two years old.

"We have arrested individuals who have prior history of child molestation," Lackey tells WSB. "Thank goodness this time, there wasn't a real child on the other end."

On a recent visit to Lackey's office, she quickly proves her point when calls up a free teen chat room which pops up as a hit following a quick, simple search engine request. She introduces herself as a 13-year-old Georgia girl. Within seconds, the chimes ring indicating someone on the site--which bills itself as a chat room for teens 15-19--wants to begin a private, one-on-one chat with her. They ring one after the other, and Lackey calls up the first four. Several chimes continue to ring, but she ignores some of them for now.

All of the first four tell her they are men over the age of 18. She asks them if, at 13, she's too young. Their answers are chilling.

"He's a 23-year-old male from Missouri, says, 'No you're not at all. I don't mind a bit. I'm just sitting here being a bum,'" Lackey reads.

The second window: "This individual is 28. Gave me his private e-mail address and has already asked for a picture."

The next one: "Okay. He's saying that he needs masturbation...the 18-year-old."

Another: "The 28-year-old says that he's looking for phone sex."

To a novice observer, the instant responses are surprising. But after two years of these investigations, neither the messages nor their immediacy shock Lackey. As one of the first local police departments in the United States to launch an investigative unit to snare child predators online, Peachtree City's numerous arrests have been featured many times in broadcast and print media. It seems surprising that with that much publicity, the police department there continues to make these kinds of arrests.

Lackey acknowledges the observation, saying it's shared by many. "I hear from other law enforcement officers, and from people who know me and know that I do this, 'I cannot believe you said you were from Peachtree City and someone still wanted to meet you. I cannot believe they didn't throw their computer out in the front yard and it was on fire!' You know?

"It shocks us. I guess that's probably the one thing that still shocks me is that they still come and meet," Lackey says.

She goes on to say that most of the suspects who chat with her do express fear of being caught, or of being labeled "a child molester."

"They know what they're doing is wrong," Lackey says. "However, that desire, that drive, that sickness, overrides common sense and they just--they can't help themselves. They can't stop."

'Pedophiles Go Where Children Go,' Says Chief

Peachtree City Police Chief Jim Murray says predators' access to children on the Internet is a major problem. He says the severity of the problem became clear when they made their first case, which targeted a web designer for the Coweta County school system. The man was arrested as he sat in front of a school computer at the Board of Education offices.

"On that first one, we also found child pornography on that computer," Murray tells WSB.

Murray says pedophilia was problematic before the advent of the Internet, but online, the pedophiles go where children go.

"It's always been a problem," he says. "I've dealt with a lot of female victims in my career, women that were molested as they were growing up. It's always someone that they generally know—family, friends, friends of the family. Same as it was with pedophiles. They could secrete themselves in a family unit and find a victim if they wanted to, or it was with a Scouting unit, or with the little league—something where they could put themselves around children all the time.

"The Internet has given all the closet pedophiles the ability to get on the Internet and think they're anonymous. They really aren't, to the police, but they think they are. That's the danger of it. We're arresting people who live right next door—presidents of homeowner's associations, that are in the Rotary Club, coach the swim team, coach the girl's track team. Those are the pedophiles that are the most dangerous because those are the people you don't know who they are," says Murray.

Wednesday, 13 December 2006
Thursday: Why It's Not Entrapment

*University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center, 8/2006