Net Sex Sting

Net Sex Sting is an operation in New York conducted by police, child activists, and sometimes journalists. During a month-long sting of online sex crimes, Suffolk County, New York detectives said they arrested two dozen Internet pedophiles by posing in online chat rooms as young boys and girls. Police invited many men for dates to a rental home in central Suffolk. Caught in the sting were men between 20 and 47 years old from New York City and Long Island, including several students, a young actor, a plumber, an Army lieutenant colonel, and a West Islip, New York firefighter.

Police say conversations of a sexual nature took place with older males under the assumption they were minors. The arrested were charged with attempting to disseminate indecent material to a minor, a felony. The Net Sex Sting began with seven detectives from Suffolk's Computer Crimes Unit posing as 12-, 13- and 14-year-old boys and girls. Amoung the arrested were: William Beckhans, Christopher Dashevsky, Dennis Robinson, Daniel Rodriguez, Dennis Vlismas, Matthew Lukas, Michael Sharpelletti ,William Coulter, Ryan Lifton, Kenneth Pace, and Stephen Price.

This has become a new way to catch pedophiles and would-be pedophiles, using the same internet they use to lure children with. The police and child protective groups pose as underage children on the net and agree to meet with people who want to engage in pedophilia. Sometimes the police use male and female decoys who look underage, who in fact are adults. When the prospective criminals arrive they are arrest. These Net sex stings have becoma a controversy because many call it entrapment and claim a crime has yet to be commited.

This has become a new way to fight child abuse due to TV shows like "To Catch a Predator".

External links

*http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lisex154627755feb15,0,125456.story?page=2&coll=ny-linews-headlines
*http://www.babylonbeacon.com/news/2006/0302/Front_page/005.html
*http://www.helium.com/items/1100768-datelines-to-catch-a-predator-helpful-service-or-illegal-entrapment