MySpace invader

These 3 moms are about to see for the first time how their daughters have interacted online with the so-called “new kid” in town.  Luckily for the mothers of Amber, Rachelle and Brittany, new guy “Matt” is really a police officer conducting an experiment.

Rob Stafford, Dateline correspondent: This is your daughters’ friend, who they think is 19-year-old Matt.

Amber’s mom was the first to peer into her daughter’s MySpace profile.

Stafford: What did you find out about Amber?

Det. Dannahey, who posed as “19-year-old Matt” on MySpace: Let’s look at her page.

15-year-old Amber has a private page, but Det. Dannahey says, after she asked just a couple of questions about where he lived and went to school—she allowed him onto her profile.  Once he was on, he quite easily found a lengthy survey Amber had completed. In it was reams of personal information such as her favorite TV show,  actor, the music she listens to, even her favorite hobby.  These likes and dislikes may sound harmless but according to Dannahey they’re just the kind of details a predator collects to try to forge a bond with a child.

Det. Dannahey: As you could see, 377 questions is every possible thing that you’d wanna know about a teen.

Stafford: Did you have any idea that Amber was putting that kind of information?

Amber’s mom:  No, not at all.  I knew she was on MySpace, but I didn’t know anything like this. I don’t believe it.

Stafford:  How hard do you think it would be for someone to find your daughter?

Amber’s mom:  Not hard at all.

Det. Dannahey:  If I was a predator, and I’ve worked with—you know, talking to those guys online and knowing what they do—this is the kind of information somebody could pull up in front of your house and ring your door bell.

Stafford:  Do you think she understands the potential danger of this? 

Amber’s mom:  No.  No, very naive.

Now it was Rachelle’s mom’s turn.  Her first surprise was that her daughter still had a profile on MySpace.

Rachelle’s mom: We had a conversation with her last year and told her she needed to delete her profile, watched her delete her profile.  She obviously put another up.

Stafford: She’s tenacious.

Rachelle’s mom: She is.  She’s a very bright child. 

Stafford:   Who has some explaining to do?

Rachelle’s mom:   Yeah, definitely.   

At first glance, 15-year-old Rachelle’s page looked fairly safe.  She said she was from Germany and didn’t include her last name.  But that didn’t stop one of her friends—in this case, Amber—from using Rachelle’s full name in a message posted on her site.

Det. Dannehy:  Is that your last name?

Rachelle’s mom: Yes.

Det. Dannahey: So now you have a picture, and a name to match that.

Again, it may sound like a small thing.  But according to Dannahey a photo and a full name are the basic essentials in a predator’s toolkit.

And there was something worse:  When Det. Dannahey’s online alter ego asked to be allowed onto Rachelle’s private page, she let him on without asking a thing.  Once on he could see that all of her friends are from Middletown, raising doubts about her living in Germany.  What’s really frightening, like Rachelle’s other 250 “friends”  he now got her bulletins—messages that MySpace users create that go to all of their friends.

And one set off an alarm for Dannahey. Rachelle sent out a bulletin that included, “We’re gonna walk to Taco Bell and KFC.”

Rachelle sent what she likely thought was an innocent note to her friends about a walk they were going to take to Taco Bell and KFC.

Det. Dannahey:  Of course if I’m sitting home at my computer and I now get this bulletin and I know it’s in real time and I guess if I wanted to get in my car and had indication where you live, I could kind of intercept them there.

Odds are that information isn’t going to fall into the wrong hands. Now that she’s seen her daughter’s profile, Rachelle’s mom understands how dangerous this could be.

Rachelle's mom: Yeah, who else is she talking to?  And who else is she doing this with and putting these notes out there, not even thinking about the fact that somebody could just take advantage of that.

Finally, Brittany’s mom. And she has to confront something very disturbing about her daughter’s online life.

Det. Dannahey: As you can see, I have quite a few messages from—

Brittany’s mom:  From Brittany?

Of the three girls, 16-year-old Brittany interacted online the most with Det. Dannahey’s fake persona.  He showed her mom a comment he found deeply troubling. In a note to “Matt,” Britanny said, “We should meet up sometime.”

Det. Dannahey:  If you read that line, that would be—

Brittany’s mom: That’s scary.  I had no idea that that was there. She wants to meet with him.  Oh my god.  And we talked about it.  And she told me she was on private.  You know, we’ve talked about it.  “There’s no information on there.  She would never, ever meet anybody ever.  Ever.” 

Det. Dannahey: I think she trusted me.

Brittany’s mom:  But she trusted you enough to  meet with you. And I feel I’m a protective mother, because I really know where she is pretty much all the time. I mean I’m shaking.  I feel like I’m gonna—I don’t know.  I’m scared.  I’m really scared.

Rachelle’s mom:  I just feel sick to my stomach, really sick to my stomach, because you know you talk to your kids and you trust them.  But you can’t trust anyone else.

Det. Dannahey: No, and I’m sure I could re-enact this same experiment probably any town anywhere in America and get the same results.

Brittany’s mom:  Oh yeah. Definitely.

Rachelle’s mom: This is the most precious thing in my life, and I feel like it could just be ripped right out from my hands in the blink of an eye. And I wouldn’t have even known it was going on.

Just as their meeting was breaking up, Det. Dannahey noticed he was receiving a new message online.  And now Brittany’s mother found herself in the unique position of looking over “Matt’s” shoulder as he conversed with her 16-year-old daughter.

Stafford: Did you know Brittany was online right now?

Brittany’s mom:  No, she should be in bed.

And what does she read?  A goodnight message she can’t believe her daughter wrote. 

Stafford:  (reading Brittany’s computer message) “’I’ll talk to you later. Hugs.’”

“Hugs.”  And remember that’s directed at a guy Brittany’s never met, which makes it especially upsetting to her mom.

Stafford (to Brittany’s mom): To see this happening live right in front of you?

Brittany’s mom: It’s scary actually. It’s really scary.

It was an alarming evening for the mothers but just wait until their daughters get the wake-up call the next morning.

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