Book Description: Thirteen-year-old Lainey Emerson hated her family and school, and except for her friend Molly, stayed pretty much to herself. So when the cute boy she met in an online chatroom starting paying attention to her, Lainey was flattered. When he wanted to see her photograph, she dressed up to look older, did her makeup and nails, and sent him a picture. Then he wanted to meet. How was she going to pull this off?
Special Agent Bobby Dees, head of the Crimes Against Children (CAC) Squad for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), is called in when Lainey is reported missing. His job is to try to determine when a runaway is simply a runaway, or if something more sinister has taken place. And as successful and acclaimed as he is, the ironic truth is that his own daughter is a missing runaway, who he has been unable to find.
Then the paintings start turning up. Grotesquely distorted images of tortured teen-aged girls – each with enough detail to send law enforcement to the specific locations where their bodies are found. The walls of the CAC office are filled with photos of missing teens – how many of them have fallen victim to this murderer? Will one of them be Lainey Emerson? Or Deesʼ own daughter? What kind of sick serial killer are they looking for?
Pretty Little Things is a fast-paced story that will leave readers wondering just who is waiting on the other side of that cyber door, every time they or their children log on to the Internet.
Visit the Book's Website: Pretty Little Things Book
About the Author: Jilliane Hoffman was an Assistant State Attorney in Miami between 1992 and 1996. Until 2001 she was the Regional Law Advisor for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, advising special agents on complex investigations including narcotics, homicide, and organized crime. Pretty Little Things is her fourth novel, following the international bestsellers Retribution, Last Witness, and Plea of Insanity. She lives in Florida.
Protecting Your Child From Cyber-Monsters
By Jilliane Hoffman,
Author of Pretty Little Things
Last December, New York's Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that more than 3500 registered sex offenders had been purged from the social networking sites Facebook and MySpace in the state's first database sweep for sexual predators.
That's 3500 caught, convicted and registered sex offenders who'd actually used their real names when they signed up for a Facebook or MySpace page. That's not counting all the deviants that haven't yet been busted, pled to a lesser charge, had charges dropped, never registered their emails with their probation or parole officers, socially communicate using an alias, or live outside the Empire State. With that in mind, consider this sobering statistic: According to the Center for Sex Offender Management (CSOM), the average sex offender offends for 16 years before he's finally caught. In that time span, he has committed an average of 318 offenses and violated 110 victims.
Wow. Now just imagine who your kids may be chatting with online.
The explosion of the Internet over the past decade has spawned fertile hunting grounds for sex offenders. Kids, and particularly teens, live their lives instantaneously and out loud on social networks, where every detail from where they'll be hanging out that night to who they'll be with and what they'll be wearing when they get there is posted for all of their "friends" to see. And those friends are not just the traditional bunch of kids you've known since elementary school. Social networking sites and chat rooms have literally opened up a whole new cyber-world to children. Online, they can be "friends" with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people from all over the globe, most of whom they've never met outside of a WiFi connection. And of course, as the tragic headlines constantly remind us, in this faceless cyber world not everything is kid-friendly and not everyone is who they say they are.
There are over 665,000 registered convicted sex offenders living in the United States. According to a study commissioned by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, one in every seven kids has been approached by a sexual predator online. That's 13% of children who use the Internet. Sex Offenders no longer need to leave the comfort of their living rooms to find and "groom" fresh victims. Rather, with just the click of a mouse, they can mingle in chatrooms, send and receive child pornography, and, of course, purview the walls of Facebook and the posts of MySpace like they might entrees on a dinner menu, replete with helpful personal information and pictures. Just ask the detectives who work online undercover or the producers of Dateline's popular To Catch a Predator -- in this fast-moving cyber-world, a predator can be anyone he wants to be: A twelve year-old boy, Jay-Z's agent, a modeling scout, a fourteen year-old girl. And teens, being the invincible bunch they are, always believe they'll be able to spot a poser or a predator a mile off on the computer, when the truth is they can't -- oftentimes until it is way too late. They've already been groomed.
Back in the mid 90's, in response to the headline-making abduction of eleven year old Jacob Wetterling of Wisconsin, and the sexual assault and murder of seven year-old Megan Kanka by her neighbor, a repeat child sex offender in New Jersey, the feds enacted a series of laws designed to warn the public of the presence of dangerous sex offenders and heighten community awareness on an issue that was literally moving in right next door to Joe the Plumber. Each state was charged with establishing a sex offender registry and implementing a community notification program. The theory behind which was simple: Knowledge is power. If a sex offender is going to be out and about in the community, people -- and more particularly, parents -- should arm themselves with information about their identities and whereabouts so as to better protect their kids. Without promoting vigilantism, making yourself aware of the scum living in your zip code that your children might very well come in contact with and warning kids appropriately can be a very effective crime-fighting tool. But in today's world, where every kid has a cell phone in their pocket and a computer in their room, it's just not enough.
My daughter was in the fourth grade when a fellow eleven year-old classmate was approached on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) by a 43 year old sexual predator who went by the screen name of "rooster69" and claimed he was a 16 year-old boy. It wasn't until he asked one of the little girl's friends to send him nude pictures that one of the children finally spoke up. I thought I had more time to ready myself on the dangers of the Internet. I was wrong.
So what's a parent to do? How can you make sure your kids are Facebooking with fellow thirteen year olds and not forty-three-year-old convicted sex offenders? I'm a big believer in the real world. Show kids the headlines. Let them read the stories of teens who disappeared or were assaulted after meeting up with someone they met online. The stories are out there, and there are plenty of them. Check out perverted-justice.com for a real eye-opener. Then talk to your kids about limiting the amount of personal information they post, particularly addresses and schedules; inappropriate posts and pictures; the new horrible growing fad of sexting; and finally, limiting the amount of "friends" they have and just what those friends are able to see. And as a parent you have to know of what you speak. So if you don't have a Facebook or MySpace yourself, you better thoroughly check it out. And if you do allow your kid access to a social network, it should be a number one rule that he or she "friends" you with unrestricted access, so that you can monitor what he or she is doing.
Then make sure you do just that.
© 2010 Jilliane Hoffman, author of Pretty Little Things
Here's What I Think:
The topic of this story is just heartbreaking and sadly rather close to me, which made it a little difficult to read. The book is written so well that it is completely realistic and plausible, which is just heart wrenching. Hoffman has really done her research and explored all of the aspects of these characters. The book is fast paced and although it is a novel it is very informative. She has also managed to convey the seriousness of the topic without being fantastical or over-zealous in her writing. She has shown just how easy it is for this horrible nightmare to happen to the average American Family. If you are a mother, this book will be difficult to read, but I strongly urge you to pick it up. Sometimes it takes a tale of horror to really make you see what you stand to lose.
Disclaimer: Although I did receive a copy of this title for review from FSB Associates, I was in no way directly compensated to publish this post.
This is such a difficult topic but one that needs to be talked about openly more often. I enjoyed Jilliane's article and also your review. I'm sorry to hear that this topic is one that is personal for you.
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