SARI LOCKER, TEEN EDUCATOR, PSYCHOLOGIST: Stops by to discuss the dangers on MySpace.com

From CNN SATURDAY MORNING NEWS

NGUYEN: Well, several girls in one Connecticut town claim to have been sexually assaulted by men who they say contacted them online pretending to be teenagers. Police are checking into that and other alleged reports of Internet predators. How common is the problem and how can you protect your child? Teen educator and psychologist Sari Locker is in New York with some answers for us, looking forward to these answers. Sari, good morning. Thanks for being with us.

SARI LOCKER, TEEN EDUCATOR, PSYCHOLOGIST: Good morning. Thanks for having me here this morning.

NGUYEN: First up, let's tackle the Web sites where you can put out your own personal page. How dangerous is it for children? They think it's fun.

LOCKER: I think they're dangerous, but I also think it's just a horrible thing. No teenager and no child ever needs to have a personal web page. These Web sites like myspace.com, it's essentially like the child or teenager is just putting all their personal information up there, almost like they just want everyone to know where they live. They say exactly what school they go to.

They say their first names and they put up often very sexy looking pictures of themselves and they're children who are doing it. If you go to the site, one of the big problems with these so-called social networking sites is that they have a search function. So you can put something in the site like the word "16" press enter and you come up with web pages of 16-year-olds where it says the school they go to and the city and state where they live. It's terrible.

NGUYEN: ... can do just a search and find whatever they want coming up with pictures, addresses, where they go to school, all that information just like that, that easy? LOCKER: Yes and it's despicable. They can put in the name of the middle school down the block and come up with first names and pictures and e-mail addresses of these children. The fact is I don't like saying this on television because I'm always afraid that the bad people are listening. So bad people, plug up your ears. But seriously, it is something that all parents need to know about. If your child has a personal web page, you must make sure that they get it down. Do not allow this anymore.

NGUYEN: Sari, knowledge is power and that's what we're doing here. When we talk about Web sites and these personal web pages, is instant messaging just as disturbing?

LOCKER: To me it is. On America Online, a lot of children create very sexy sounding screen names and I'm always shocked. But when I see these, I see things like hot teen 13. It is a real child screen name or sexy girl. And the parents don't seem to know about this.

One of the problems with America Online is, again, there's a membership directory where you can search by city, state, age, anything and come up with screen names, e-mail addresses of children and teenagers and there are a lot of kids out there who feel flattered when they hear that bling of the instant message and a stranger is contacting them.

You mentioned the news story about the seven girls in Middletown, Connecticut who were sexually assaulted by someone they met on a Web site. I used to go to summer camp coincidentally right down the street from that town.

And one day when I was about 11 years old, a camp friend and I wandered beyond the gates of the camp, started walking down the street, just to go for a nice walk. And a man pulled up his car alongside us and started driving very slowly and talking to us. My friend and I, we knew well enough as children to not talk to him. And in fact we ran the other way back to camp and told the counselor.

NGUYEN: But if someone approaches a child online, I mean just put it in that scenario, they don't know. They think it's just some friend or someone out there their age trying to contact them and that's not the case.

LOCKER: That's my point with that story, exactly that, that children and teens today need to treat it the exact same way when a stranger contacts them online. They must log off, run the other way, tell their parent and they're not doing it because they think it's fun.

NGUYEN: All right, but here's the problem. We know all about the dangers now that we've spoken with you and you've been able to say word for word where they are, how predators can get to children. What do you do about it? What can parents do about it, because a lot of parents are not familiar with the Internet. They don't know a lot about computers. So they're kind of in the dark. LOCKER: First thing they need to do, as I mentioned, make sure that the screen names of your children do not have their real name, their age, anything sexy, anything that's related to a youth-oriented celebrity or a location and you need to control that. The next thing you need to do is make sure that they are not going on these social networking sites. Limit their instant messaging and limit their e- mail and don't let them go into chats.

Now the third point is you need to know if you are a parent how to use the Internet. You need to understand your computer. You might need to do some checking up on your child also. So what you need to know how to go on to, if you have America Online, go on there and block the buddy list so they can't be doing instant messaging with strangers. You also need to know how to look up the temporary Internet files on your computer to see if your teen or child has been going onto sites.

NGUYEN: So you can follow where they've been. You can actually see where your child has been.

LOCKER: Exactly.

NGUYEN: All right. So when is it appropriate for a child, very quickly, to have a web page and to start doing instant messaging and all of that because a lot of kids are getting on board with this.

LOCKER: They say that they want to so much and they beg their parents. Until I'm shown a site that's different, I will continue to say no teen ever needs to. So give your teen an alternative. Tell them to keep a written diary like we did in the old days or tell them to get a part-time after school job so they're doing something with their time other than sitting on the computer. Please, try to make a difference with your teenager.

NGUYEN: Sari Locker with these strict rules, but you know what, it could really make a difference in the lives of children out there, keep them out of danger, author, educator, as well as psychologist, thank you.

LOCKER: Thank you.

HARRIS: Good stuff.

NGUYEN: Yes. Frightening.