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Online Safety

Predator Preying On Maryland Teens While Out On Bail Learns Prison Fate: Feds Predator Preying On Maryland Teens While Out On Bail Learns Prison Fate: Feds
Predator Preying On Maryland Teens While Out On Bail Learns Prison Fate: Feds The Maryland man who used multiple phones and online apps to target teens - even while he was out on bail and charges were pending - will spend years in prison for coercing and enticing minors, federal authorities announced. Michael Vance Culpepper, 56, of Walkersville, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after being busted by an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl online, and then doubling down after being released by a judge. He had faced life in prison. According to his guilty plea, in April and May 2023, Culpepper used cellphones and online applications to "persuade…
Predator Preying On Maryland Teens While Out On Bail Facing Life In Prison: Feds Predator Preying On Maryland Teens While Out On Bail Facing Life In Prison: Feds
Predator Preying On Maryland Teens While Out On Bail Facing Life In Prison: Feds A Maryland man who used multiple phones and online apps to target teens - including while he was out on bail and charges were pending - admitted to coercing and enticing minors, federal authorities announced. Michael Vance Culpepper, 56, of Walkersville, is facing life in prison after being busted by an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl online, then doubling down. According to his guilty plea, in April and May 2023, Culpepper used mobile phones and online applications to persuade, induce, entice and coerce two victims whom he believed to be 13- and 14-year-old to engage in sex…
Elementary School Music Teacher In Maryland Charged With Child Porn Offenses: Sheriff Elementary School Music Teacher In Maryland Charged With Child Porn Offenses: Sheriff
Elementary School Music Teacher In Maryland Charged With Child Porn Offenses: Sheriff An elementary school teacher in Maryland is facing nearly a dozen charges related to the possession and distribution of child porn, officials say. Bel Air resident Dominic J. Lafrancesca, 27, was arrested by members of the Harford County Sheriff's Office, authorities announced on Tuesday morning after he was charged with 11 counts related to the possession and distribution of child pornography. According to investigators, earlier this year, detectives with the Harford County Child Advocacy Center received information regarding suspicious Internet activity, specifically the downloading …
Man Busted For Sexual Solicitation By Officer Posing As 15-Year-Old Girl In Maryland: Sheriff Man Busted For Sexual Solicitation By Officer Posing As 15-Year-Old Girl In Maryland: Sheriff
Man Busted For Sexual Solicitation By Officer Posing As 15-Year-Old Girl In Maryland: Sheriff A 48-year-old Virginia man is facing charges in Maryland for allegedly targeting a young girl - who was, in fact, an undercover officer - through a messaging app, authorities announced. David Clay Murray, of Fairfax, was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual solicitation of a minor following an investigation by the Frederick County Sheriff's Office. In early August, a detective performing online investigations posing as a minor girl who was 15 was contacted by Murray through the cellular messaging app.  Investigators say that during the course of the conversation, the de…
Maryland Man Hoping For Sex With Teen Instead Arrested By Undercover Officers: Police Maryland Man Hoping For Sex With Teen Instead Arrested By Undercover Officers: Police
Maryland Man Hoping For Sex With Teen Instead Arrested By Undercover Officers: Police An undercover investigation landed a 30-year-old Perryville man behind bars for soliciting a purported teen girl through social media, the Harford County Sheriff's Office announced. Joshua John Brown was arrested days after interacting with detectives posing as a 13-year-old girl on a social media platform, while openly acknowledging the age difference and illegality of the conversations. According to the sheriff's office, Brown identified himself as a 30-year-old named "John," and despite expressing concerns about possible consequences, he "continued to make sexually suggestive remarks," a…
Rapist Dead-Bolted Facebook Date Inside Her Own Maryland Apartment - Now He's Locked Away Rapist Dead-Bolted Facebook Date Inside Her Own Maryland Apartment - Now He's Locked Away
Rapist Dead-Bolted Facebook Date Inside Her Own Maryland Apartment - Now He's Locked Away A man who preyed on a woman he met through social media will spend decades in prison after raping his would-be date, the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office announced on Wednesday. Silver Spring resident Rome Hill, 32, was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison with all but 30 years suspended after persuading his victim to meet him after just two days, then assaulting her at gunpoint in September 2020. At the time Hill reached out to his future victim, she was a stranger to him, prosecutors said. According to court documents, on Sept. 9, 2020, "CC," the victim, and Hill were comple…
Skype Tip Leads To Child Porn Charges For Frederick County Man: DOJ Skype Tip Leads To Child Porn Charges For Frederick County Man: DOJ
Skype Tip Leads To Child Porn Charges For Frederick County Man: DOJ A tip from an online video platform to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about child porn led police to bust a Frederick County man who targeted minors for the better part of a decade, federal authorities announced. Walkersville resident Paul Francis Blaisse, 63, is facing a 13-count indictment in Maryland charging him for his role in distributing and receiving images and video depicting the sexual abuse of children, including some pre-pubescent victims. According to court documents, between 2013 and 2019, Blaisse used Internet chat applications to engage in sex…
Ex-Virginia State Police Trooper Dead After Abducting California Teen, Killing Her Family Ex-Virginia State Police Trooper Dead After Abducting California Teen, Killing Her Family
Ex-Virginia State Police Trooper Dead After Abducting California Teen, Killing Her Family A former Virginia State Police trooper was killed in a shootout with police who say he traveled across the country to Riverside, California, where he abducted a teenage girl he met online, before killing her mom, grandmother, and grandfather. Austin Lee Edwards, 28, of North Chesterfield, parked in a neighbor’s driveway and allegedly set the family’s home on fire before kidnapping the teen he “catfished” on Friday, Nov. 25, according to the Riverside Police Department. Edwards had previously worked as a trooper with Virginia State Police in Henrico County from early January until his resign…
Girl 'Meeting Boy She Met Online' Found Safe: Authorities Girl 'Meeting Boy She Met Online' Found Safe: Authorities
Girl 'Meeting Boy She Met Online' Found Safe: Authorities UPDATE: Jasmine Vought, 16, has been found safe according to the Adams County Crime Stoppers.as of Friday, Nov. 18. No additional information was released. ORIGINAL: 16-year-old Jasmine Vought has been missing ever since she left her residence to go "meet up with a boy she met online," authorities say.  Vought had been living at Hoffman Homes located at 815 Orphanage Road, Littlestown, was last seen on Tuesday, Nov. 15 around 11:30 a.m., according to a release. She was wearing a black coat and carrying a black backpack when the left to meet the boy, shortly afterward a light orange…
Seesaw App Used By Elementary Schools Sends NSFW Photos To Parents In Apparent Nationwide Hack Seesaw App Used By Elementary Schools Sends NSFW Photos To Parents In Apparent Nationwide Hack
Seesaw App Used By Elementary Schools Sends Nsfw Photos To Parents In Apparent Nationwide Hack Elementary schools across the US are urging parents to not open the messages on the Seesaw app after an apparent hack sent out "inappropriate" images starting on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022.  "The platform was hacked and is experiencing a nationwide issue where some school district families and teachers were receiving links/URLs to inappropriate images," officials at a Schodock elementary school in New York said on its website.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Seesaw (@seesawlearning) Most schools are simply asking parents and guard…
FBI: ‘Sextortion’ Of Teen Boys Is Increasing, Here's What Parents, Guardians Should Know FBI: ‘Sextortion’ Of Teen Boys Is Increasing, Here's What Parents, Guardians Should Know
FBI: ‘Sextortion’ Of Teen Boys Is Increasing, Here's What Parents, Guardians Should Know Reports of adults ‘sextorting’ teenage boys into sending them sexual videos or photos online are booming, particularly involving victims 14 to 17 years old, the FBI warns. In 2021 alone, its Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 18,000 sextortion-related complaints of various types, the bureau announced on Wednesday, April 13. A growing number involved late-teen boys targeted by predators posing as someone else, federal authorities said. It ordinarily begins with a contact through social media or on a gaming site. The adult predator or scammer "convinces the child to s…
NJ Attorney General Co-Leads National Probe Into Whether TikTok Harms Kids, Teens, Young Adults NJ Attorney General Co-Leads National Probe Into Whether TikTok Harms Kids, Teens, Young Adults
NJ Attorney General Co-Leads National Probe Into Whether TikTok Harms Kids, Teens, Young Adults New Jersey law enforcers are co-leading a multi-state investigation into whether TikTok puts youngsters at physical and emotional risk, Acting Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced. The probe centers on what Platkin called techniques used by TikTok to "increase both the frequency and duration of engagement by young users – children, teenagers and young adults – and on the potential harms that may result from such engagement." It will also explore "what TikTok knows about such harms," the attorney said in announcing the endeavor on Wednesday, March 2. A coalition of attorneys genera…