• Children are reported missing at the rate of 750,000 per year, 62,500 per month, 14,423, per week, 2,054 per day, and 85 per hour or 3 children every 2 minutes. (NCMEC Online Victimization: A report on the nation's Youth April 3, 2000).  More and more of these missing children were abducted at a common meeting place with a "friend" they were chatting with in an internet chat room.  This "friend" was not 10 years old or 19 years old as they pretended to be in the chat room but in fact an older adult.
   
• A Lafayette teenager met a man online recently, whom she agreed to meet at a local movie theater. Instead of the handsome 15-year-old she expected, it turned out he was a “greasy 35-year-old,” (Source: The Advertiser Online Newspaper)
   
• Deputies say a man stalked and assaulted a 13-year-old Vidor girl he had met on the Internet. (Source: The Orange Leader Online Newspaper)
   
• A man was arrested in connection with the abduction of a 15-year-old Manteca girl he allegedly met while posing as a teenager in an Internet chat room. (Source: KXTV News10)
   
• The fact is, anybody can pretend to be anything they want on the internet. Online predators will tell you how nice you are, how smart you are, how pretty or handsome you are, and pretend to be your same age or pretend to be someone you can trust - but this is all a lie to lure you in.

If you think it isn't "cool" to tell your parents about what you do over the internet, just remember this: online predators count on you not telling your parents about new people you meet over the internet.

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