CHARLESTON, SC NEWS - LIVE 5 WCSC Breaking News, Weather, SportsOfficials offer ideas to keep kids safe from sexual predators

Officials offer ideas to keep kids safe from sexual predators

By Tracey Amick  bio | email

CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - There are more than 500 million Facebook users, and Special Investigator Doug Galluccio says many of them are sexual predators.

"Kids are vulnerable because they like to be popular and have a lot of friends on their lists," Gallucio said. 

Just last week in Charleston, a 14-year-old boy found his own picture on someone else's profile, and then that fake persona friended a 13-year-old girl and asked her on a date.

"In the friend request, somebody she does know is attached to the person asking her out on the date so she accepts the friend request, " Gallucio said.

Parents need to be involved and if their children have Facebook accounts, the parents should know their password and monitor their friends.

"[Parents should be] going through the friends list asking, 'Who's this person? Who's this person? I cant recognize this one,'" Gallucio said.

Parents should also monitor pictures and keep pictures of their kids in bathing suits off the web.

"Especially in the summertime, especially in Charleston, kids are constantly at the beach and they're taking fun pictures they consider harmless," Gallucio said.

There is also software available for download that can monitor all their online activity. The software will monitor every site visited, every email and picture sent, and how long the child is online.

It can also send parents alerts and notify police if a potential predator makes contact.

"It's involvement like anything else, this is something parents need to be involved in," Gallucio said.

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