Mystery Woman Crusades Against Internet Predators
Last updated Friday, March 25, 2005 10:41 PM CST in Opinion
A Eureka Springs woman is a friend to hundreds, perhaps thousands of pre-teen and teenage girls although the young women will probably never know of her existence.
The identity of the woman is well-known and respected by area law enforcement officers but to the public she remains a mystery woman with a mission -- stopping pedophiles from preying on young girls.
Earlier this week a 57-year old California man was arrested in Rogers when he came to Arkansas to have sex with a 12-year old girl named Cindy he met on the Internet.
Cindy does not exist. She was created by the Eureka Springs woman.
Cindy is not the only invention of the crusading Eureka Springs woman. In December a Lakewood, Wash., man traveled to Eureka Springs to meet an alleged 13-year old girl for sex and was arrested. A Rogers man and a Garfield man were arrested in January after communicating with fictional teenage girls created by the woman.
Computer technology and the Internet enables pedophiles to locate and interact kids while remaining hidden. In 2002 it was estimated more than 45 million children were surfing the Internet. One can only assume that number has increased in three years.
The Eureka Springs woman is using the same techniques to lure pedophiles into the hands of police.
Some may call it entrapment, we disagree. No one forces older men to correspond with children in hopes of having sex with a 12- or 13-year- old girl.
Psychologists and law enforcement officers say pedophiles don't prey on one child then quit, they continue to seek new encounters with children.
Research indicates there is a pedophile for every square mile in American, according to the Humanity Against Victimization of Children web site. Stories about pedophiles who are caught after harming a child often make the evening news. However, the majority of incidents go unreported, allowing the pedophile to remain hidden and to continue to create new victims.
We salute the mysterious woman in Eureka Springs who spends some of her time protecting children from pedophiles who are real and more dangerous than the bogeyman.
She is doing what she can to protect children she has never met, simply because it's the right thing to do.
She is the embodiment of the Humanity Against the Victimization of Children's motto, "The world is a dangerous place to live not because of the people who do evil things, but because of the people who know about it but do nothing to stop it."
An unnamed woman, sitting in the glow of a computer screen, whether you agree or disagree with her tactics, is doing what see can to keep some child in Northwest Arkansas from being the next victim of a pedophile.
We tip our hat to the silhouette in the computer screen, may she continue to be successful.
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Dan Alexander wrote on Nov 26, 2006 11:33 PM: