The body of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall was found in a ditch near Sedgefield, Co Durham, UK last week after Peter Chapman, her alleged killer, was said to have confessed to the police after being pulled over for a minor traffic offence.

It is believed that 32-year-old Chapman, a registered sex offender, lured Hall into meeting him after grooming her through Facebook; where he posed as a 16-year-old boy.  His Facebook page, which dons several pictures of him, lists 144 friends – all of which are female.

Hall, who was studying child care in college, told her schoolmates she was secretly planning to meet a 16-year-old boy she met on Facebook, but told her mother she would be sleeping over a friend’s house.

Her mother, Andrea Hall, realized there was something wrong after her daughter failed to turn up the following day and her repeated calls to Hall’s mobile rang unanswered.  Meanwhile, Chapman was arrested that same day for driving with no insurance.

While detained, he allegedly confessed to suffocating Hall by covering her mouth with duct tape and then volunteered further information regarding her death.  Chapman led police to Hall’s fully-clothed body, lying in a ditch on farmland, not far from where police pulled him over.  Detectives are still continuing investigations to establish the exact cause of death.

Chapman now faces three charges of manslaughter, kidnap and failure to notify authorities his change of address (a legal requirement for registered sex offenders).

“No one can imagine the hurt and devastation that has hit our family.  Ashleigh was loving, honest, caring and well-liked.  Everybody loved her,” Ashleigh’s mother said.  “To have Ashleigh taken from us in such circumstances is beyond belief and I don’t want other families to suffer what we are going through.”

Andrea Hall is now advising parents on warning their children about online dangers saying, “We’ve learned a terrible lesson…Tell your kids to be careful on the Internet.  Don’t meet someone without telling your family where you are going.  Don’t trust anybody and don’t put your children on Facebook or other sites if they are under age.”

As provided by Jim Gamble, chief executive of CEOP – the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre – here’s a checklist of essential steps parents should take to protect their kids online:

Protect your private information:

• Teach your kids to never give out personal information.
  This includes contact information such as their real name, their home address and phone numbers, and extends to other details like email addresses, instant messenger IDs and the name of their school or anything that could reveal where they live.

• Teach them to use generic pseudonyms online (e.g., Oasis404), where their real name, age, sex or location cannot be derived.

Be aware of what you’re kids are doing online:

• Ask them openly what they like to do online, what sites they frequent, and who they regularly chat with.

• Observe them by keeping the computer in a common area of the house.  Also, let them know you’ll be keeping an eye open for them and why.

• Monitor their Internet activities regularly. You can check their Internet history by pressing ‘control-H’ on the keyboard.

Set ground rules and realistic limits:

• Set the ground rules before letting your children surf online and stick to them.  Let them know what is acceptable and that certain actions and language online will not be tolerated.

• Establish policies on the safe use of communication tools popular among youth like webcams, chatrooms, email, blogs, social networking sites and instant messengers.

Get informed and stay on top of technology:

• Stay on top of Internet trends, developments and issues, so you can recognize inappropriate or potentially dangerous situations.

• Familiarize yourself with popular applications young people are using such as social networking sites and chatrooms.  Teach yourself and your kids how to use features and available privacy controls of each application, as well as reviewing its terms of use and privacy policy.

Keep an open dialogue:

• Make yourself available and approachable, so your kids will feel they can approach you should they intend on meeting an online friend in person.

• Share with your children stories of kids who have been duped online to show your kids you’re not just being overprotective.

• Keep them informed on how to deal with inappropriate or disturbing material or encounters.

Go over online stranger danger:

• Let them know the rules of not speaking to strangers in the street apply to strangers over the Internet.

• Explain the importance of keeping online friends online. Tell your kids to be wary of anyone they meet online, even if you met them through a friend of a friend.  Emphasize the fact that some people are dishonest over the Internet and that online predators often use instant messengers to collect information about their targets.

Monitor their mobile use:

• Go over the rules of mobile phone usage as youth are using their mobiles to access the Internet.

• Monitor how they are using the mobile’s camera and video devices.  What images and messages are they sending out and to who?

Sources:
Ashleigh Hall murder mum of tragic teen begs parents to warn kids about internet perils:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/10/29/ashleigh-hall-murder-mum-of-tragic-teen-begs-parents-to-warn-kids-about-internet-perils-115875-21780953/

“I killed a girl” what drifter suspected of murdering teenager Ashleigh Hall told police
http://www.mirror.co.uk/most-popular/2009/10/28/i-killed-a-girl-what-drifter-suspected-of-murdering-teenager-ashleigh-hall-told-police-115875-21778255/

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