Gardaí probing online approach to girls

Parents have been warned to monitor their children’s Facebook accounts after gardaí confirmed they are investigating inappropriate approaches made to three teenage girls.

The investigation was launched after two of the schoolgirls, accompanied by their mothers, made a formal complaint at Youghal Garda Station in Co Cork.

A third student made a separate complaint.

All three say they had been contacted individually by a man who was pressuring the girls to meet him in person. “Fortunately, the girls’ mothers became aware of the situation before matters progressed any further,” a garda said.

Gardaí confirmed they are following “a strong line of inquiry” and have sought the assistance of the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Investigation Unit at the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

“We will also be liaising with Facebook, who have a set procedure for dealing with police investigations,” the Garda spokesman said.

“It will take time to gather the relevant technical information, but the wheels are turning.”

Gardaí have urged anybody who has experienced similar approaches on social media sites to contact their parents and/or their local gardaí.

“We strongly urge parents to be aware of their children’s contacts and online exchanges,” said a Garda spokesman.

Earlier this month, a 15-year-old Canadian girl, Amanda Todd, took her life after she was stalked online. A man had contacted the girl when she was just 12 and subjected her to a litany of abuse and psychological torture in the following years.

The ISPCC has again warned of the dangers of meeting somebody through social media sites.

“It’s important, if children are concerned, that they can go to their parents and tell them,” said Tess Noonan, ISPCC services manager in Cork.

“It’s good in this case they went to their mothers.”

She said a survey of 18,000 young people conducted by the ISPCC recently showed 16% of secondary school students had met face to face with somebody after first being in contact with them online.

“It does happen, young people do do it, so it’s concerning when there are inappropriate approaches by an adult.”

She said the survey showed a quarter of second-level students did not use privacy settings on their Facebook account and a third of primary school children did not know how to keep their account private.

Just under half of older children said they used the computer in the bedroom, and Ms Noonan said it was crucial the home computer was kept in a communal area under parental supervision.

She said the ISPCC wanted all social networking sites to install a panic/safety button that young people could click if they came across worrying or inappropriate behaviour. It would be connected to child agencies and police.

Ms Noonan said Facebook privacy settings should automatically be set at the highest level of restrictions and that users would have to actively decode it down.

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