James N. Brown, J.D.

Detective - Retired

In my next two blogs, I’m going to share with you the nature of a chat between a predator and a potential child victim.  I believe it is important for everyone, but especially parents, to understand how aggressive a predator can be with a child.  Unfortunately, I cannot share a chat from an actual case because the matter may still be in litigation.  I can share chats that have occurred in training secessions.

All officers engaged in proactive Internet investigations should attend extensive training on how to conduct an undercover operation with a predator.  The training will include several hours during which the officer poses as a child and goes into chat rooms where children would be expected to meet and talk.  It is not uncommon for predators to frequent the same chat rooms, where the predator seeks to engage a child in conversation that will lead to a potential meeting.  In an undercover operation, the officer is seeking to engage in conversation with the predator that will lead to his arrest and prosecution.

The following chat occurred during one of my training classes.  I have used “Predator” in place of the actual screen name and “Child” in place of my undercover name.  The chat is exactly as it occurred.  I have included the times in order to show how quickly the predator moved the conversation along.  There are a few of my comments in parentheses.

[10:40] Predator: are you 14f? (he wants to confirm the child’s age and sex from her screen name)

[10:40] Child: yes

[10:40] Predator: where is your mom?

[10:41] Child: at work (he now knows the child is probably alone)

[10:41] Predator: is it morning there or night?

[10:42] Child: mid morning

[10:42] Predator: what are you wearing? (he is moving right to his main interest)

[10:42] Child: jeans and tshirt

[10:42] Predator: and under?

[10:43] Child: skin

[10:43] Predator: no panty?

[10:43] Child: no

[10:43] Predator: do you live next to a lake or woods or river?

[10:44] Child: ocean

[10:44] Predator: close to your home?

[10:44] Child: kinda

[10:44] Predator: do you go there at night sometimes?

[10:44] Child: sometimes

[10:45] Predator: and you swim naked?

[10:45] Child: somethimes

[10:45] Predator: your mom know?

[10:46] Child: no

[10:46] Predator: at what time of night do you go to swim naked?

[10:46] Child: evening

[10:46] Predator: do you go when its dark or no?

[10:47] Child: at night

[10:47] Predator: with the moonlight you swim?

At this point I terminated the conversation by logging off.  What is important to notice is that the entire conversation lasted only seven minutes.  In that short time, the predator learned that this “child” does not wear panties and likes to swim naked.  Pretty fast work on his part.  I have no doubt that the predator would have wanted to learn more about what the child looked like and eventually would have tried to see if they could meet.

In my next blog, “See How They Chat – Part 2,” I’ll give a similar example of a predator’s online conduct.  In this second example, the predator is much more aggressive and sends the child a picture.