Are You Safe Online?

[Story-Teller]

Are You Safe Online?


Shannon could hear the footsteps behind her as she walked toward home. The thought of being followed made her heart beat faster. "You're being silly," she told herself, "no one is following you.” To be safe, she began to walk faster, but the footsteps kept up with her pace. She was afraid to look back and she was glad she was almost home.

Shannon said a quick prayer, "God please get me home safe." She saw the porch light burning and she leaned against the door for a moment, relieved to be in the safety of her home. She glanced out the window to see if anyone was there. The sidewalk was empty. After tossing her books on the sofa, she decided to grab a snack and ~get on-line~.

She logged on under her screen name ByAngel213. She checked her Buddy List and saw GoTo123 was on. She sent him an instant message:

ByAngel213: Hi.
I'm glad you are on! I thought someone was following me home today. It was really weird!

GoTo123: LOL You watch too much TV. Why would someone be following you? Don't you live in a safe neighborhood?

ByAngel213: Of course I do. LOL I guess it was my imagination cuz' I didn’t see anybody when I looked out.

GoTo123: Unless you gave your name out on-line. You haven't done that have you?

ByAngel213: Of course not. I'm not stupid you know.

GoTo123: Did you have a softball game after school today?

ByAngel213: Yes and we won!!

GoTo123: That's great! Who did you play?

ByAngel213: We played the Hornets. LOL. Their uniforms are so gross! They look like bees. LOL

GoTo123: What is your team called?

ByAngel213: We are the Canton Cats. We have tiger paws on our uniforms. They are really cool.

GoTo123: Did you pitch?

ByAngel213: No I play second base. I got to go. My homework has to be done before my parents get home. I don't want them mad at me. Bye!

GoTo123: Catch you later. Bye

Meanwhile......GoTo123 went to the member menu and began to search for her profile. When it came up, he highlighted it and printed it out. He took out a pen and began to write down what he knew about Angel so far. Her name: Shannon Birthday: Jan. 3, 1985 Age: 13 State where she lived: North Carolina Hobbies: softball, chorus, skating and going to the mall. Besides this information, he knew she lived in Canton because she had just told him. He knew she stayed by herself until 6:30 p.m. every afternoon until her parents came home from work. He knew she played softball on Thursday afternoons on the school team, and the team was named the Canton Cats.

Her favorite number 7 was printed on her jersey. He knew she was in the seventh grade at the Canton Junior High School. She had told him all this in the conversations they had on-line. He had enough information to find her now.

Shannon didn't tell her parents about the incident on the way home from the ball park that day. She didn't want them to make a scene and stop her from walking home from the softball games.

Parents were always overreacting and hers were the worst. It made her wish she were not an only child. Maybe if she had brothers and sisters, her parents wouldn't be so overprotective. By Thursday, Shannon had forgotten about the footsteps following her.

Her game was in full swing when suddenly she felt someone staring at her. It was then that the memory came back. She glanced up from her second base position to see a man watching her closely. He was leaning against the fence behind first base and he smiled when she looked at him. He didn't look scary and she quickly dismissed the fear she had felt. After the game, he sat on a bleacher while she talked to the coach. She noticed his smile once again as she walked past him. He nodded and she smiled back. He noticed her name on the back of her shirt. He knew he had found her.

Quietly, he walked a safe distance behind her. It was only a few blocks to Shannon's home, and once he saw where she lived he quickly returned to the park to get his car. Now he had to wait. He decided to get a bite to eat until the time came to go to Shannon's house. He drove to a fast food restaurant and sat there until time to make his move. Shannon was in her room later that evening when she heard voices in the living room.

"Shannon, come here," her father called. He sounded upset and she couldn't imagine why. She went into the room to see the man from the ballpark sitting on the sofa. "Sit down," her father began, "this man has just told us a most interesting story about you."

Shannon sat back. How could he tell her parents anything? She had never seen him before today!

"Do you know who I am, Shannon?" the man asked.

"No," Shannon answered.

"I am a police officer and your online friend, GoTo123."

Shannon was stunned. "That's impossible! GoTo is a kid my age! He's 14 and he lives in Michigan!"

The man smiled. "I know I told you all that, but it wasn't true. You see, Shannon, there are people on-line who pretend to be kids; I was one of them. But while others do it to find kids and hurt them, I belong to a group of parents who do it to protect kids from predators. I came here
to find you to teach you how dangerous it is to give out too much information to people on-line.

You told me enough about yourself to make it easy for me to find you. Your name, the school you went to, the name of your ball team and the position you played. The number and name on your jersey just made finding you a breeze."

Shannon was stunned. "You mean you don't live in Michigan?"

He laughed. "No, I live in Raleigh. It made you feel safe to think. I was so far away, didn't it?"

She nodded.

"I had a friend whose daughter was like you. Only she wasn't as lucky. The guy found her and murdered her while she was home alone. Kids are taught not to tell anyone when they are alone, yet they do it all the time on-line. The wrong people trick you into giving out information a little here and there on-line. Before you know it, you have told them enough for them to find you without even realizing you have done it. I hope you've learned a lesson from this and won't do it again". "Tell others about this so they will be safe too?"

"It's a promise!"

Shannon and her dad and Mom were very thankful for protecting Shannon from what could have been a tragic situation.

Author Unknown
Submitted by Richard

 

[rizen1]

Can't believe I missed this post.
It's so dangerous online now, we have to be so careful when we post things online. I will go a step further when you're posting photos of your family try not to upload those with landmarks, house number visible in the background.

 

[B-A-C]

Very good post, very good reminder.

However I find it isn't just kids. Adults are sometimes even more ignorant.
Some of it is just blatantly obvious things. A friend of a friend posted on a public wall of facebook that he left his house key and car key
in a box under the porch for his daughter to pickup after school. I've even seen social security numbers and credit card numbers on-line
in the most unlikely places. Another person posted pictures of his cat with comments like "isn't snowball just precious" then two posts later
his messages his wife that the on-line bank account password is the cats name.

Without getting all paranoid and starting a conspiracy theory, I have to wonder about all of the on-line tracking going on.
Whether you know it or not,everyone here is profiled. The government knows what you look like, your spending habits, your friends,
your credit card numbers, and even whether you are a Christian or not. I have no doubt even this site is monitored.
After all the government needs to keep track of those extremist right wing conservative-religious fanatical types. They are dangerous.
Unfortunately sometimes they are right, we have westborough baptist and the branch davidians and other groups like that who are
fairly dangerous. But what about the rest of mainstream Christianity? Almost every store I go to these days wants to give me some
kind of membership/discount card. Every time you use it it tracks what you buy. A major chain hardware store even remembers what
I bought last year in case I need to replace it ext year. It sounds like a good idea, and I suppose it even is.

But why do they need all this information? Most new operating systems (Windows8 and MacOS for example) want you to store all of your
pictures, documents, and songs up in "the cloud". How many of us are doing this on our smart phones even now. Even if you think your
pictures are safe on your phone, how many of us have "auto-backup" turned on so we can recover everything if our phone gets broken
or lost? Now the purpose of this post isn't to start mass hysteria or anything like that, but to make you think.

If there really is going to be a one world government someday. And it's led by a people who wants everyone to bow down and worship
him and his image, hmmmm.... do we really think we could fool them? The day is coming when only those who take the mark of the beast
will be able to buy or sell things. The day is coming when a loaf of bread will cost a weeks wage. The day is coming when those who
don't worship the beast will be hunted down and beheaded. I wonder if we haven't made it too easy for them.