The FBI is currently investigating cases in the metro of adults posing as teens on the Internet and trying to to meet young victims.

Seducing a child is getting easier for child molesters these days in light of some popular Web sites like MySpace.com.

Gone are the days when teens spent hours talking on the phone at night.

Just ask 14-year-old Cristina Moody, of Star, who says they let their fingers do the talking.

"We talk on the computers for hours at night," said Moody.

Cristina spends most of her time on websites like www.myspace.com and www.xanga.com.

The teens write notes, journals and post pictures that, in some cases, anyone can access.

It's a harmless and fun way to communicate with friends, but it can turn into a dangerous game.

"I've heard stories of people who were being friends with people they didn't know who said they were young like them. But they were actually older ... It can be really dangerous," said Moody.

The dangers that come along with sites like Myspace became clear when a 21-year-old Illinois State student disappeared and was later found murdered in Mississippi. Her Myspace account is still posted online.

Officers are looking at her Web site as part of the investigation. They said she may have given away too much information such as her daily schedule.

"Understand, anything that you put on the Internet -- your picture, your information and it's gone. Once you hit send, it's gone," said Ed Parmelee.

Parmelee is on the FBI's Cyber Crime Task Force and is working a case in Mississippi where a sexual predator gained access to a child through a Yahoo instant messenger account.

"It's not so easy to say -- go to the mall where you're 45 or 50 and you go up to an 11-year-old. Most 11-year-olds are not going to want to talk to you. But if you present yourself on the Internet as a 12-year-old male and you're trolling for 11-or 12-year-old females, then it's easier to make contact and develop a relationship," said Parmelee.

The statistics are alarming -- one in five children will at some point be solicited for sex through e-mail or chat.

One in four children is exposed to "unwanted" sexual material on the Internet.

That's not hard to find while surfing Myspace.com for just a few minutes. WAPT found images of half-naked women and other sexually-explicit photos, accessbile to anyone, even young teens who log on.

"On Myspace you don't have to click on the pictures. They're automatically on there when you go to the site of new people and you can just look at them.

A simple search of Xanga took us to a 14-year-old Jackson girl's Web site which was complete with pictures. And a 13-year-old from Byram who lists her school and physical description.

Moody's mom Paula follows the advice of experts and keeps the computer in a common room so she can monitor the time her daughter spends online.

Moody also takes her own precautions. She too, omits personal information on her MySpace site like her real name, hometown and age.

It's a good start but the only foolproof way to stay out of trouble is to log off.

Agent Parmelee says parents should watch for children who are on the Web a disproportionate amount of time -- and are secretive about their online activities.

He recommends monitoring your child's Internet use to make sure computers are in common areas of the house and he says parents need to educate themselves on the common chat lingo and cyber stalker warning signs.

Parmelee sayd parents can also install monitoring software on their home computer. The software usually costs between $50 and $100.

COMMON CHAT LINGO

Possible Warning Signs
• a/s/l -Age, Sex, Location
• NP - Nosy Parents
• POS - Parents over the shoulder
• F2F (f2f) - Face to Face (meet)
• IPN - I'm posting naked
• P911 - Parents are coming
• NIFOC - naked in front of computer
• IWALU - I will always love you
• TAW - Teachers are watching
• PAL - Parents are listening
• KOL - Kiss on lips

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation

SIGNS YOUR CHILD MAY BE AT RISK

• child spends large amounts of time on-line unsupervised
• child is secretive about online activity
• pornography found on home computer
• child recieves unexplained phone calls or messages from unknown people
• unexplained packages, gifts mailed to home
• child becomes withdrawn from family
• child uses online accounts belonging to other people
• child circumvents parental software
• other communications oddities:

"phone sex" line tolls

unexplained, substantial telecomm. bills

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation

OTHER WEBSITE RESOURCES
• www.ncmec.org
• www.netsmartz.org
• www.cybertipline.com
(To submit tips to authorities)