Panel discussion for parents will warn of Internet dangers

It's estimated that only half of the 4 million children solicited for sex ever tell parents or police.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Grace Bucci never suspected anyone could lure her teen-age daughter away from home through her computer.
But in 1998, the Neshannock woman's 15-year-old daughter ran away to be with someone she had met in an Internet chat room. The girl was found unharmed about three days later on a bus headed for California.
"It was a nightmare. Not only when she was missing, but all the fallout that happens after that. The FBI said this child was brainwashed into thinking she loved this man," she said.
The man Bucci's daughter was planning to meet was eventually prosecuted and spent about a year in prison.
Warning others: Bucci says now she wants to warn other parents about dangers on the Internet.
She will share her story Wednesday as part of a panel discussion about preventing Internet sexual exploitation of children. The discussion will be at The New Englander banquet hall. It is open to the public and costs $15, which includes dinner.
Sponsored by the Children's Advocacy Center of Lawrence County, the panel will include speakers from the Pennsylvania State Police, the FBI, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Lawrence County Women's Shelter/Rape Crisis Center.
The panel discussion is the finale of a two-day conference for local law enforcement professionals who are learning how to detect and investigate sexual crimes against children on the Internet.
Crimes increase: Sue Ascione, executive director of Children's Advocacy Center of Lawrence County, said the program was planned because her agency has noticed an increase of Internet sex crimes involving children.
The problem isn't limited to children's being lured from home via chat rooms. It also involves the posting and downloading of child pornography and harassment, she said.
All are problems prosecutors in Lawrence County have had to deal with in the past few years, said District Attorney Matthew Mangino, moderator of the panel discussion.
Kids don't tell: The U.S. Department of Justice thinks that only half of the estimated 4 million children who are solicited for sex on the Internet report it to parents or police, Mangino said. That's why parents must learn how to take an active role and be aware of who their children are meeting on the Internet, he said.
Bucci agrees.
"My mistake as a parent was I didn't check up on her. She was a kid who never got into trouble and was very responsible. I didn't think I had to follow up," she said.