Dr Phil invited Colorado detective, Mike Harris, back to the show who, along with Pam Russell, who works for the Jefferson County District Attorney, works overtime tracking online predators. 

Dr Phil also spoke to 16-year-old Zoe and her mother, Sharon.  Zoe sends nude and/or semi-nude photos of herself to men that she meets on MySpace.  Not only does Zoe give out her phone number and address to some of these older men, she has even been caught having sex with one in her bedroom.  She really didn’t seem to realize the danger that she was inviting into her life (and the lives of her family members).  I was stunned when she seemed to defend her actions by saying that she had a system for figuring out if guys that she met online were okay (I didn’t completely understand but it involved looking at their friends list and comments section on MySpace). 

Next, Dr Phil spoke to Kyra.  After her father committed suicide in 2005, she began looking for friendship wherever she could find it.  Her mother got her a cell phone and Kyra began visiting chat rooms.  The then 12-year-old Kyra, agreed to meet a 22-year-old man in real-life who promised to spend time talking with her.  Sadly, he sexually assaulted her and was subsequently arrested.  The poor girl could barely get the words out of her mouth when Dr Phil asked her questions (this all happened just last year). 

Fortunately, Zoe looked a little rattled by the story and said that she had never thought she was in any danger.  I hope that she truly did learn a lesson from Kyra’s story – what a brave young girl!

Mike Harris showed Dr Phil a product that can help protect today’s children.  It’s called RADAR, My Mobile Watchdog and it enables parents to monitor their children’s outgoing and incoming text messages on their cell phone.  It’s not Spyware because the children know that it is there.  You can come up with rules about privacy since you can have the notifications set to forward messages to and from people who are not on your child’s “safe contact” list.  It’s customizable but does cost $9.95 per month for the most basic package.  Still, that small amount is worth protecting your kids!

What did you think of the episode?

image: www.mymobilewatchdog.com

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