Being a parent is never easy. However, in the age of the internet things have become even more frightening. I’m a mother of 3 children. My only son just turned 16, my oldest daughter is 10 and my youngest daughter is only 7. I won’t tell you their names obviously. You can never be too cautious on the internet. I learned this the hard way. What I’m about to tell you is every parent’s worst nightmare.
Ever since my son turned 16, we had gotten him a phone because we didn’t want him to get stranded with car problems out in the middle of nowhere. However, now that he has a phone, he’s created social media accounts. My biggest fear is him meeting some stranger on the internet and having it turn out to be some psycho murderer or something. Ever since then, I have created fake accounts to monitor his online activities. I know, I know, it’s such a grievous violation of his privacy, but his safety must come first.
Anyway, I was on one of my social media accounts doing my due diligence when I came across something that made me sick to my stomach. It was a picture of my youngest daughter posted by some random stranger. I immediately clicked on the profile and to my horror, there were more photos of her. They were taken while she went about her day. There were some of her at school, some while she was getting on the bus and others while she was at home. She wasn’t the only girl that was being stalked. There were hundreds of photos of other girls. What’s worse were the comments. I was expecting to see people as horrified as I was, but some were saying some pretty disgusting things. Things I will not repeat. They were sexually objectifying a 7-year-old. It made me nauseous. I ended up throwing up.
What’s worse was there was a link to a website. That’s when I found something truly horrifying. They were not only selling photos of children, but there were auctions where you could buy kids that were most likely kidnapped. Once again, I found myself puking. I went straight to the police with this.
They were able to get the website shut down and even made a few arrests. However, not even a week later I stumbled upon another website with photos of my 10-year-old. I once again reported them to the police hoping to put an end to this. I’ve never been more horrified in my entire life.
It’s safe to say after this terrifying ordeal, I kept a close watch on my kids. I drove them to school in the morning and picked them up right after. I made sure not to let them out of my sight and I kept an even closer watch on my surroundings to make sure no one was watching them.
One day after school had parked to pick up my kids and to my shock and horror, I saw a strange black car with all its windows tinted parked outside the school. I reported it immediately after I saw the camera of a phone poking out of a crack from the window. Thank god the police were not far. They pulled up behind the car. The car tried to drive away but was cut off by another patrol car.
They were able to arrest the man right then and there. However, what they found inside his car had given me nightmares to this day. They not only found his phone was full of pictures of not only my own kids but hundreds of others, they also discovered chloroform, rope, weapons, and all sorts of things that are common items used in kidnapping.
I haven’t had a good night’s sleep ever since. This just proves you can never be too careful when it comes to the safety of your kids. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to protect my children.
The End.
Remember, you’re never safe in the dark…
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