Protecting your kids from cyber danger

When it comes to safety, the World Wide Web can sometimes be the Wild Wild West -- especially for teens.  69 News sat down with the man who investigates computer crimes for the Pennsylvania State Police to find out just how serious the consequences are.

"They're children and children do dumb things sometimes," said Trooper Paul Iannance, a 14 year veteran of PSP's Computer Crime Task Force.

Those "dumb things" can turn dangerous in this era of instant communication.

"If you delete something, it's not really gone," said Iannance.

First, there's the issue of cyber-bullying, which made national headlines when a 13 year-old Missouri teen committed suicide.  But the biggest problem cops now see?

"Sexting."

Iannance explained how it works.

"Boy dates a girl, he convinces her to take a picture -- nude, semi-nude," he said.  "She sends it to him they break up, where does the picture end up?"

In the case of several Emmaus High School students this fall, they ended up on a foreign website for anyone to see.  Plenty of classmates did.

Iannance said "sexting" isn't just dangerous; it can actually send your kids to jail.

"According to Pennsylvania law right now, those two produced child pornography, they disseminated child pornography because they exchanged it, and yes, they would be in possession of child pornography," he said.  " All three are felonies -- really, really serious crimes."

It's not just kids who need to beware, though.  If you're an adult and you text someone a nude picture, Iannance said it's not a crime for them to post it, although you can sue for invasion of privacy and other things.

"You put something on the web, it's there forever," he warned.

As some teens have found out the hard way, "forever" is a very long time.