The risks associated with kids spending time online and on social media apps are increasing at an alarming rate.
According to Detective Tony Godwin, of the Garland Police Department, there was a spike during the pandemic because everyone was forced to be at home and to work, learn and conduct business online. It was bad enough before COVID. But with everything being done online, hackers found new targets and learned new skills.
Probably the most common are cases where predators befriend young people online. The predator poses as another young person and gains kids’ trust. Then he or she gets them to do things, such as sending nude photos (which he or she often uses to blackmail them), agreeing to meet them, etc.
An example of a recent case – one for which Godwin received an award, involved two Garland victims, a preteen girl and a 1-year-old. Godwin read about the case in a shift report and realized that he needed to check into it. It turned out to be his biggest case to date.
As he researched, he saw that the suspect appeared to be in the U.K. In this case, that was true. However, many times, predators hide themselves through a VPN or proxy. It might look like they are in the U.K., but they could be here in Garland.
“Most agencies would probably close the case right away as they wouldn’t have jurisdiction there,” Godwin said. “But this was a really egregious case, and I decided to go the distance with it.”
He was able to work a long-distance joint investigation with detectives in the U.K.
“It opened Pandora’s box. Not only did we find all my victims’ material that had been sent to him, but we found out that there were upwards of 10,000 victims all over the world,” Godwin said. “This one guy victimizing upwards of 10,000 kids.”
The case is still going on.
“We have resolution on the Garland cases – the predator was convicted and sentenced to 19 years,” Godwin said. “But he was arrogant and decided to testify at his own trial.”
During his testimony, he introduced evidence that hadn’t been brought in on the current case. He is now being looked at for 40 more victims.
“Hopefully, he’ll get life,” Godwin said.
Godwin said that the preteen has been empowered to reclaim some normalcy back in her life.
He added that without her, there’s no way to tell when or if this predator would have been caught.
It all started when the preteen was on social media and accepted a friend request from the predator who presented himself as a teenager. Then he convinced her to do things and send photos she shouldn’t have. She called 911 on her own and reported what was going on to the police.
Working proactively is the best defense against online child predators. Godwin spends a lot of his time online posing as a young girl trying to catch predators.
In addition to the ones that get children to send inappropriate photos, there is another kind of predator that will travel for hours by car or plane to meet up with their victims.
It must be quite rewarding to meet a predator at the airport as a police officer instead of the young person he’s expecting.
Most predators plead guilty as this is a part of their life that they’d prefer to hide.
“We are never going to arrest our way out of this problem. So, we have to educate and make people aware of what’s going on so we can head it off at the forefront,” Godwin said.
Many parents do not believe that their kids could get hooked into something like this. Parents have to have the tough conversations. They need to know what’s going on with their kids and be involved in their activities. Young people with involved parents are extremely less likely to become victims of child predators. The reason for that is that the kids with engaged parents are usually comfortable enough to talk to their parents about anything.
“We see a lot of kids who are scared to tell their parents,” Godwin said. “Their biggest fear is losing their electronics. Parents have to talk to them and make sure the kids know they can go to them.”
Godwin said that we have to change how today’s kids think. There are kids freely taking nude photos and sharing them with boyfriends. They think it’s alright because the boyfriend wouldn’t share it, so they think. Disturbingly, only 3% of young people are afraid to share these photos because it’s illegal.
He believes that changes in society are a factor in kids’ behavior. Additionally, Godwin does not believe that today’s young people could have existed in the time when he was a kid.
“The ability to have a conversation is lost on this generation,” Godwin said. “Their faces are stuck in the phone. It’s going to hurt them later. They will have no ability to communicate. Also, they care more about the social media ‘like’ or ‘thumbs up’ than what’s really going on in their lives. I don’t know how we unring the bell.”
They don’t know life without technology. There are 7-year-olds with phones and unrestricted internet access.
“We wouldn’t give an 8-year-old the car keys and send them to the store for milk,” Godwin said. “Why would you give them unfettered, unmonitored access to anything online?”
Another tragic reality is the number of kids worldwide that have committed suicide because they got a ‘thumbs down’ or negative comment on social media. They can’t deal with that.
Godwin said that many parents think it’s an invasion of the child’s privacy to monitor their online activity. Instead of worrying about a child’s privacy, prioritize safety. His opinion is that parents have to set rules and enforce them.
“Make your kids go outside, throw a football, take a walk. Anything that gets the kid thinking outside of the phone,” he said.
Every department doesn’t have a detective dedicated to cybercrimes.
“I’m blessed to work for the Garland PD. They take care of me and give me leeway to focus where I need to focus,” Godwin said. “GPD strives to have people in place to do what needs to be done.”
Godwin’s job is very difficult. He sees and hears horrific things, and it sometimes weighs on him. He has hobbies like woodworking and metalwork and his wife and kids are a great support system. Godwin added that the department’s mindset is different from when he began his career 30 years ago. He said that Chief Jeff Bryan is a believer in the importance of mental health and getting people the help they need.
“Mental health is a real thing that’s acknowledged now. When I was a rookie, you’d never talk about certain things,” he said. “You couldn’t bring it up for fear of being ostracized or judged.”
Apart from his job as a police detective with GPD, Godwin and a friend host a podcast to increase awareness of these problems. They have a website– www.catfishcops.com – where there are extensive lists of resources to help parents.