Not so sure about this book..

I don?t know why it matters so much what Hansen?s motivations are, but it does, and I just don?t trust him. His fame and wealth depends on how successfully he sells his televised news stories. And for the past several years, he has been selling the on-air complete destruction of the lives of men that most of society regards with contempt. These men are pedophiles who have crossed the line between living with the desires they struggle with and acting on those desires by first chatting online with an underage kid, then gradually steering the conversations to sexual topics, and eventually arranging to meet the young person alone.
Like anyone, I feel anger toward these men and want them to pay for what they did. They need to realize the painful impact their actions can have on a young teen. However, I?m not so sure that exposing them on Dateline NBC is the most moral thing to do. There are way too many other factors at work here for it to be a matter of catching a predator and removing the threat. And there?ve been accusations that Dateline means to entertain and shock.
There are some parts of the book that are very moving; these are the tragedies of the victimized kids. One very sad story involves a 13-year-old girl who befriended someone she believed to be a teen boy but was an adult who convinced her to meet him, then kidnapped and killed her.
However, outside of the horrific case stories, the book doesn?t have much to advise us on that we don?t already know by now. The internet provides a fast, hard-to-detect way for predators to chat with teens, making the world more dangerous today. But just as people knew 15 years ago, the best defense is a smart kid, one that knows to never go to meet a stranger, and that an online stranger has no right to ask them such personal questions. They must be knowledgeable when parents aren't there. I've no kids of my own yet I can imagine a parent?s urgency. Unfortunately, I don't think this book can help much.

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2 people found this helpful

Kind of all over the place

This contains some details from the various sting operations that Hansen was part of and this is moderately interesting, but if you Jane seen one or two of them, there is nothing new here.

it also contains long rambly accounts of child killings that have been drawn out of the archive to pad this out, as well as tedious and hopelessly out of date advice on how to keep children safe on line. Remember to keep track of those MySpace accounts folks!

Hansen comes across as smug, self righteous and out of touch. As others have said - I just don't trust him.

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5 star in all

Very informative book
To be recommended to all parents and citizens
Schools need to adopt a lesson for this information too

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