Abduction Game Isn't Child's Play

Jan. 26, 2005 — -- When Nancy Teasley heard the rumors that two of the girls in her sixth-grade computer technology class at Weatherford, Okla., Middle School, had been propositioned online, she was glad for a game that she'd had her students play.

The computer game is called "Missing." Developed by a Vancouver, British Columbia, company, it is now distributed free in the United States to schools and police departments by Web Wise Kids, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Ana, Calif.

Teasley decided to use the game in her class after learning about it from the Oklahoma Department of Education. "I felt it was something our kids could benefit from."

She said the game provides an up-to-date answer to the age-old problem of how to keep children safe from the cunning people who want to harm them.

"Twenty years ago we talked to our kids about how to protect themselves if they were out playing or in the park," she said. "But with the Internet, it's a different thing, and kids have to learn the dangers are out there."

In Camas, Wash., police Officer Tim Dickerson had been trying to get Camas Middle School to include the computer game in its curriculum. His effort got a boost when the reality of the dangers to children struck close to home.

"A young lady living just outside our town was a victim of an Internet predator," said Dickerson, the school's resource officer. "That wasn't the reason we did it, it was coincidental, but it certainly helped us get the interest of the parents and the school district. Everybody was just ready to jump on board."

The dangers are no secret. According to a Department of Justice report, one in five children under 18 who use the Internet has been propositioned online, and according to Nielson NetRatings there are some 20 million children ages 12 to 17 who surf the Web.

When the Girl Scout Research Institute polled girls about their Internet use, 30 percent said they had been sexually harassed online, but only 7 percent said they told their parents.