PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Angela Lee says her 8-year-old daughter does have a cell phone.
But with plenty of restrictions.
“We allow her to have it but we give her certain rights. You have the right to the phone, but you don’t have the right to use it any way you like,” said Lee.
She’s also aware other devices give easy access to the internet.
“She’s not allowed to use any streaming device for video games because that’s very hard to monitor,” said Lee.
Investigators said a child predator was able to communicate with a Pasco County teen even after the girl’s parents took away her iPad.
They say she used a SMART TV to log on to chat sites.
Four men were arrested for sexually exploiting her.
All are charged with human trafficking.
Cpl. Shane Hughes is a veteran of the Pasco Sheriff’s Office cyber crimes unit.
“It doesn’t matter what the device is; they are still able to talk back and forth. And a lot of those applications offer a live service where they can talk to other people such as Skype or Zoom,” said Hughes.
Hughes says oftentimes predators will meet children on a safe application and convince them to go to a different app with fewer safeguards.
Whatever apps kids are using, parents should download them too.
“So they understand how the application works. They can see who their mutual friends are,” said Hughes.
“As they grow older, we can’t shelter them completely. You have to give them some trust and allow them to have some risk but with guidelines. Because if you don’t, they are going to act out in ways that are very disconcerting,” said Lee.
Experts also say to make sure kids are using privacy settings to restrict who can contact them.
And have strong passwords and appropriate screen names.
