Written by
It seems that 50 years of your life is the going price for teenagers who abuse their favorite social networking sites. This recent news story should send a cold shiver up your spine and a message to all parents concerning their teenagers. Social networking sites such as Facebook come with responsibilities.
In the news, a teenager from Wisconsin was accused of blackmailing dozens of his fellow high school students into sex acts. He did so by using photos and videos obtained in a Facebook fraud he created. Anthony R. Stancl of New Berlin, Wisconsin faces up to 50 years in prison after pleading no contest to two felonies Tuesday. The original 12 charges brought to him carried a maximum penalty of nearly 300 years.
Stancl pleaded no contest to repeated sexual assault of the same child and third-degree sexual assault. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed charges that included second-degree sexual assault, child enticement, and possession of child pornography.
Stancl was accused of posing as a girl online and convincing more than 30 of his classmates to send him naked pictures of themselves. He then used the images to blackmail them for sex. Authorities indicated that they found more than 30 folders on Stancl's computer containing about 300 nude images of other male students at New Berlin Eisenhower High School in southeastern Wisconsin.
Police began the investigation after a 16-year-old boy told authorities he was being blackmailed into acts of oral and anal sex with Stancl. The boy, then 15, had exchanged explicit pictures of himself online with a “girl he met online” who later threatened to spread his picture throughout the school unless he agreed to the acts with Stancl. Stancl photographed those meetings, giving him the opportunity to further blackmail his fellow students.
Parents, I plead with you to be the authority in your home. Know what your teenagers are doing. Your child does not need a best friend; they need someone to look up to and to whom they can respect. The television show “Modern Family” is great. One of their characters is a dad to three kids. He tries very hard to be their best friend. He gives high fives, recites lyrics from High School Musical, etc. Funny show. Don’t be that dad (or mom). A responsible adult at home could have averted this news article above. Be that adult...