Caught in the net - Short Stuff - girls help FBI catch pedophiles in cyberspace - Brief Article

Girls' Life, August-Sept, 2003

Call them the Charlie's Angels of cyberspace: Best friends Karen, Mary and Kristen are eighth-graders...and the FBI's secret weapon against criminals who try to sexually exploit kids online. The FBI estimates 20,000 cyberperverts go on the Net, hoping to lure unsuspecting kids into child pornography.

The FBI has a sting called Operation Innocent Images in which agents pose as teens online, patrolling chat rooms and message boards for creeps. But many agents weren't used to going undercover as your average Justin Timberlake-lovin', Roxy-wearing, LOL teen. That's where the BFF trio comes in. Karen, 14, Mary, 14, and Kristen, 13, teach agents how to gab like girls. Their course includes some hot topics--cool celebs, "in" clothes and cyberspeak. Says Mary, "The first time we gave the agents a quiz, they totally failed. They get upset when you tell them Led Zeppelin isn't cool." The youngest instructors ever in an FBI classroom, the girls have proved so invaluable to the sting that FBI director Robert S. Mueller I ll gave them a silver-framed letter of commendation, thanking them for "directly helping the FBI catch pedophiles." Lucky for us, tile girls have agreed to stay on the case a few more years. "You go into the classroom and the agents are like, 'Do you like Michael Jackson?"' reports Karen. "They, like, don't know anything."