Florida Girl, 15, Found; Sex Offender Still On Loose!!
Well, I hate to sound mean or out of line, but Alyssa Frank is the most recent fool to fall in love with someone on MySpace and run off with them. Of course, the person whom she was chatting with was not who they said they were. Instead of meeting a young 20-something she was in “love” with, she found 46-year-old William Joe Mitchell, who has no less than 14 prior arrests. Brilliant.
You can read the story here: Teen found, sex offender still on loose. The story is everywhere…
Of course, Mr. And Mrs. Frank are 100% to blame for this. Stories like the Franks happen all to often. They shouldn’t happen at all. When will parents learn to talk to their kids? When will parents realize there is technology at their fingertips, available to help them?
Had Ma and Pa Frank been monitoring what their daughter was doing, they could have prevented her running off “for love.” At the very least, they could have found her earlier and caught Mitchell. Instead, as of now, he is on the loose and Alyssa is left a victim.
Parents, PLEASE buy PC Pandora or some sort of monitoring software that will help you see what your kids are doing. If your parents could have had binoculars and direct line of site when you were playing on the playground, they would have. You have the tools. Use them. And prevent further incidents like this!!!
October 9th, 2007 at 8:19 AM
I use this product, and it helps us keep our wayward teen daughter from getting into too much trouble. I feel sick to my stomach reading her IMs, they are so obscenity-laced and vile, but I at least am able to let her know in roundabout fashion that I am on to her drug use and drinking…and other things I’d rather not know about. She hates it when I give her drug tests, and she hates it that I know all her cell numbers and I call them to track her down, but I will do whatever it takes.
My only beef with the product is that for some reason, I had to reinstall it and now it won’t let me use my registration again, and so I can’t read her emails. I paid 50 or more for this tool, and now its useless to me.
October 9th, 2007 at 11:47 AM
Jewel, I just emailed you! Check your inbox (and possibly spam box) for an email from me!! We will help you out and get you up and running again!
October 11th, 2007 at 10:11 PM
I am sure glad that he was caught, and now if we could just get all the rest of them, but it seems like its going to be a slow ongoing process. I feel sick inside when I think that there may be a child out there that does not know about how to defend themselves and who not to trust.
I think that it is the parents responsibility to monitor their kids. Be it on the computer, or on the play ground. I also think that other people ,say on a play ground, sees a child in harms way should intervene, sometimes it can save a life.
I personally would. If i seen someone grab a child and I thought that child was showing fear or it was screaming I would get involved. As i read somewhere once, it takes a village to raise a child. Everyone needs to get involved. Watch the neighbors kids make sure they are all ok. It might just save a life.
October 13th, 2007 at 6:36 PM
I am also glad that the police caught this predator and they found the girl safe. If only all cases ended this well. Children just do not know the dangers of the internet and posting personal information. They all think they are talking to kids their own age, kids just like them. When they find out otherwise, sometimes it is too late.
Chris- I totally agree with you. If I saw any child in danger or acting like they were in danger- I too would step in to help. That is the problem with the internet, we do see these kids getting into dangerous situations. They are just chatting with other kids- or so we all think. It’s a scary world out there- I’m just glad that there are companies and people that have monitoring software- this seems to make the internet a bit safer.
October 14th, 2007 at 12:47 AM
It seems to me that myspace is a predators dream, because alot of kids go on that and the parents think its safe, well the parents better wake up and smell the coffee because as long as their are those types of people they will find a way to get to the kids.
Parents need to watch kids as they do anything on myspace and online in general, there has been so much on TV about pedos and myspace, one would think that parents would be more leery about letting their kids on it.
But alot of parents seem to think their kids are adult enough or they trust them enough to be on it. Well i got news for parents, its not the kids they have to worry about trusting as much as it is the pedos out there, because they I’m these kids or email them and lie about their ages, or give them some story about making them a star or model or some such rot.
October 15th, 2007 at 8:58 AM
MySpace and other social networking sites are dangerous on so many levels. They are called “social networking” sites, when, ironically, they cause incredibly unsocial behavior – by addicting people to gluing themselves to their PCs.
Aside from that, yes, they are dangerous to kids who don’t know he power of the Internet. Kids ignorantly post too much personal information and/or have conversations with people they shouldn’t be talking to. It’s too easy for a predator to sign up under a fake name – would we let convicted felons loose and allow them to go to the DMV and get fake licenses without raising an eyebrow?
These sites are terrible and they have everyone fooled that they are so great and a “great way to stay in touch.” Well, if the person you are communicating with on MySpace never appeared in your phone or email lists in the past, why do you need to connect to them now? It’s a sad excuse to justify some of the most ridiculous and sometimes dangerous behavior.
But to each his/her own I guess. But you won’t find me registered on ANY of those sites EVER. I’m too smart, too productive and busy and definitely have enough friends already.