A man lured to a local target by the
group dads against Predators is raising
a lot of questions about the group
about what's legal and what's not,
and about the safety of online
spaces for the next 10 minutes.
We're digging into many of those questions.
We're going to start with.
What we know happened at that
target just one week ago.
Investigators say that three men with
dads against predators are DAP Lord.
Plan to target through the social media app.
Meet up on Wednesday on Tuesday night.
Excuse me now,
once the man was inside the target,
police say the DAP men approached
and confronted him.
They say at least one of the men
of the group was recording the
interaction on his cell phone.
Police say then a fight broke
out and the man they say was
lured there took out a handgun,
fired one round and shot one
of the DAP members legs.
Police say the DAP men took the
man's gun and left the target.
The other man went to a Forsyth
County Hospital for injuries
that he got during that fight.
Now Winston Salem police say
DAP used the app meet up to lure
that 25 year old to target.
If you're not familiar with Meetup,
let's give you a quick rundown
of what it is on its website.
The company describes itself
as a platform for finding and
building local communities.
People use meet up to meet new people,
learn new things, find support,
get out of their comfort zones,
and pursue their passions together, that.
Now,
taking a look at the apps terms of service,
a person must be at least 18 years
old to sign up for that app.
And when a user agrees to
the terms of service,
they agree to follow the usage
and the content policies.
It includes the policy be real,
it says in part,
all members should be open about
who they are, their intentions,
their affiliations,
all group and event descriptions
should be accurate,
so members can make informed decisions.
About their participation.
Now it also states creating fake accounts,
malicious accounts or accounts that
mean to impersonate another person
is prohibited on meet up well.
Experts say there's a lot at stake with this,
confronting someone who may have
committed a crime can become violent quickly.
It can ruin an ongoing investigation
and could hurt innocent bystanders.
Someone that's not as foreign
law enforcement officer with the
authority to arrest someone has no
authority to get them off the street.
You have to go through the
Police Department to do that.
If you have any information that's
forthcoming about an investigation,
call the police and let them do it.
And maybe it might stand up in
court and maybe it might have a
an attempt to help some people
instead of put them in harm's way.
Dad's against predators,
isn't just impacting investigations
here they've come under fire for
taking the law into their own
hands in their home state of Ohio.
Prosecutors in the Cleveland area say
that group poses as kids online and
then sets up meetings with older men.
They record the videos of the
interactions they post them online.
Prosecutors want the group
to stop what they're doing.
They're judge and jury on the street here.
We wouldn't treat our offenders like this.
We wouldn't, you know, harass them.
We wouldn't threaten them.
It's frustrating.
It's frustrating to see you know our
efforts overshadowed by people who
have no training have no experience,
are not even law enforcement officers who
believe that they're protecting children.
In 2020, law enforcement agencies,
in another part of Ohio,
threatened to prosecute the group if they
did not stop luring people and filming it.
As far as we know,
no charges were filed against them there.
Well right now Winston-Salem
police have not announced any a
warrants for arrest related to
that target incident at the time.
No one is facing charges.
Well, public incidents like what
happened at Target can raise some
alarms for parents for sure and have
them wondering what they can do to
keep their children safe online.
The nonprofit National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children
says that it received 29.3 million
reports of suspected child sexual
exploitation last year alone.
Predators recognize
that there was going to be more hours
online where teens and children were
going to be unsupervised and they
were encouraging each other to seize
upon that opportunity.
Last year's 29 million reports
are an increase of 35% from
2020 and an all time high.
Nearly all of them came from
phone and social media companies,
which are now required to report possible
illegal images to the National Center.
So what can you do to make sure that
your child does not become a victim?
Well, there are tracking apps
that use GPS and can even keep
a log of which apps your child
uses or websites that they go to.
Is that an appropriate way
to monitor their behavior?
Ryan Cody spoke
with a psychologist about it.
Parenting is fraught with decisions that
feel like they're the most important
decision in the history of decisions.
But the problem is sometimes that's true.
Doctor Aaron Krasnow doesn't pull any
punches as a psychologist. Talking to
parents about modern day parenting.
When we're raising small humans, some of
those moments are incredibly critical.
It's the logic behind helicopter
parenting or hovering over your kids
every move like this now viral screenshot
of a parent using a GPS tracker app
to follow Alexa around everywhere.
The app even lets them know how
fast she's driving and even when
she needs to charge her phone,
we need all the help we can get.
Yuri and Jill are some of the
parents using a similar app
safe driving I think at this
you know is the element for us.
So if he goes over speed we do have some
notifications based on that element
and it's an open dialogue with him.
He knows we're monitoring so it
keeps everybody a little bit honest.
Honesty is key according to Doctor
Krasnow who says these apps are
OK as long as everyone is aware.
As long as there is an agreement
that it's being used in the best
interest of the child and not only
based on the fear of the parent
or only the mistrust of the child,
which is often how these things are used.
Better than ignoring technology altogether,
like the tragic story of a Mesa teen
dying by suicide just days after
saying she was suicidal on Twitter.
Clearly the signs were missed.
Look at websites were to look at
social media channels and I do.
I do encourage parents to take
an active role in that regard.
Well, some parents do take an
extreme approach to handling
technology for their kids,
and that approach is no technology at all.
A growing number of parents in the
tech industry are restricting or
banning screen time for their kids.
Pierre Laurent has worked for companies
including Microsoft and Intel.
He says the tech industry designed
products to hook users Pierre and
his wife Monica became concerned
that their three kids would miss
out on real life experiences
when they were on their devices.
So they decided to limit their screen.
Time. Young children need to grow in
a different environment that hasn't
have that much technology in it.
Well, researchers are still learning
more about how technology affects kids,
but some early studies of heavy tech
users show potential links to arise
in teen suicide rates, addiction,
anxiety, loss of social skills,
the laurance's 13 year old daughter
spends her free time knitting
and playing in the backyard.
Do you ever Miss technology?
Not really. No. The only thing
I might miss technology for is
listening to music or an audio book.
We have another story about this.
Alicia Kozak was a victim
of an online predator.
She was lured from her home in Pittsburgh
and held captive in Virginia for days.
She was 13 when it happened.
She's now an advocate working to
make sure that what happened to
her doesn't happen to other kids,
but Kozak says for parents taking away
devices altogether is not the answer.
They have to monitor what their
children are doing online.
They have to pay attention and I know
it might seem like you're invading
their privacy, but you're not.
You're keeping them safe.
Bottom line here, whether you
want to completely get rid of your
children's tech or monitor their usage
with an app or open communication,
experts say the important thing is to
talk to them about the online dangers.
This can help them keep an open
line of communication with you and
stop them from becoming a victim.