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A panel of governors who met last week for the annual meeting of the National Governors Association were told that vigilant parents and well-educated children remain the first line of defense against online predators. Experts added that social networking sites were toughening standards and police are becoming more adept at handling online crime; but if the parents are not involved with what their children are doing online, children are still in great danger.

Richard Wistocki, an Internet crimes investigator with the police department in Naperville, Illinois says that parents of victims in child predator cases often tell him "I never thought my kid would take a picture of herself naked, leave with somebody they met online, all those things. He adds that if the parent doesn't go and check, how do you know?" Wistocki advises that parents go online themselves and keep track of what their children are doing.

Miss America Lauren Nelson was a speaker for the Governors event. Nelson made online safety her platform because of her own experience and that of her friends with an online predator sending them inappropriate photographs when she was 13. The best way to police the Internet is to do it from our side of the keyboard, Nelson told the panel.

Posing as a teenager in online chat rooms, Nelson took part in an April sting operation that led to charges against 11 men. She announced last month she would tour the nation with a security software company to promote the issue.

Law enforcement agencies are becoming more technologically proficient in the fight against cyberspace child stalkers, New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said during the Governor meeting. But they alone can't solve a problem so widespread that 1 in 5 kids who use the Internet are believed to have been approached by a predator. This is an issue that we're not going to arrest our way out of,"

It's a problem "far bigger than any of us realize," said Gov. Brad Henry of Oklahoma.

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