South Florida Man Who Engaged in Sextortion Sentenced to 139 Years in Prison
This happened in South Florida, a town called Hialeah. (BTW, I actually used to live in South Florida.)
This time it is a 22-year-old man that was found guilty of “sextortation”. (Sextortion is the practice of soliciting nude photos of people, usually minors, then using those photos to threaten them. We wrote about it in our free report. You can get that by signing up here.)
Here’s what strikes me about this story. The perpetrator is young – 22! Twenty-two! In my book, he’s still a kid.
And he has just ruined his life. I wonder at what age he started viewing pornography?
I do believe that he got what he deserved, as he stole pictures of young girls, initiated conversations with hundreds of boys aged 11-14(!) got them to take explicit photos of themselves and then sent those photos all over the world.
Special Agent in Charge, George L. Piro, stated, “The conduct of Patrick Killen Jr., is as appalling as it is inexcusable.”
(Interesting fact about George Piro is that he served as Team Leader and Lead Interrogator of the Saddam Hussein Interrogation Team.)
BTW parents, here’s the apps he used to seduce kids like yours: Kik, Skype, Omegle, and Instagram. It’s not about Facebook anymore.
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The Part of Technology Education we should Talk about First
Kerry Gallagher has a good article about “digital citizenship” where she highlights five takeaways from the first National Digital Citizenship Summit, which took place at the beginning of October in West Hartford, Connecticut.
Here’s her five points:
- Avoiding social media is not a solution.
- Ask students how they are engaging on social media.
- Digital native does not mean digital expert.
- Digital citizenship should not be a special lesson.
- Kids will make mistakes. Prepare them so they will know what to do.
This article is a really good read not just for educators, but for any parent, especially if you have a tween or teen in your household.
As parents, we need to start this conversation with our kids as we teach them to be intelligent digital citizens.
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You can check out all the amazing presentations from the Summit on their home page here.
Guess Who’s Flirting on Social Media? Yep, Your Teenager
Your Teen magazine ran a short article on the Pew Research report about teens and romance.
You can check it out here.
Cyberbullying Prevention Software Encourages You to ReThink
This is great software that parents should consider for your child’s phone. We all make mistakes, we all allow thoughts into our brains that, if acted upon, may hurt others. The ReThink app helps you pause before you hit send.
ReThink was the product of a young lady named Trisha Prabhu. Please check out her story here.
She’s on a mission to stop cyber bullying – and she’s doing a great, great job!
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