TEENS' USE OF TECHNOLOGY GETS THEM ARRESTED

Myspace.com and similar networking sites offer absolute freedom to
users, who can exchange information and meet others who share their
interests -- from books and movies to fetishes and drugs.

Cell phones allow users to send each other photographs meant to
inform, amuse and enrage, all consequence-free.

Not so, actually. That's what two Charlotte County teenagers
discovered Tuesday, when each was arrested for crimes allegedly
arranged or executed through their use of technology. One was accused
of unwittingly setting up a drug deal with an undercover Punta Gorda
detective over Myspace. The other allegedly sent some retaliatory
photographs to his ex-girlfriend's cell phone, and got charged with
transmission of child pornography as a result.

[redacted] became the
first person to be charged as a result of a Punta Gorda Police
Department undercover operation in which detectives learn about local
narcotics activity by searching Myspace.com, a popular Web site in
which members post information about themselves and can communicate
with each other. The PGPD operation began Dec. 4, after Detective
Thomas Lewis recognized the law enforcement potential of the site his
children used for fun.

"My kids were using Myspace.com, and when I went on the computer to
see what they were doing on there ... I restricted their use of it,
and I started using it myself," the detective said. "I think that if
the criminals are going to use the computer to commit crimes, we're
going to have to use the computer to solve crimes."

With the help of his 16- and 13-year-old daughters -- who "helped me
learn the lingo," he said -- Lewis searched the site for local
marijuana peddlers. He found "Dae-Dae," whose page "contained a text
indicating that he would sell marijuana," a PGPD report said. Lewis
contacted "Dae-Dae" via Myspace, and the two arranged to meet at 6:30
p.m. Tuesday at a Shell gas station on Tamiami Trail to exchange 2
ounces of marijuana for $400.

[redacted] arrived at the site with the drugs and another person, the
report said. He was charged with possession of more than 20 grams of
marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and
possession of drug paraphernalia. [redacted] was released to a parent's custody.

[redacted], The Academy at Charlotte Technical Center student's
mother, disapproved of the methods used by police in her son's case.

"It's like entrapment," she said Wednesday. "What my son did was
wrong, but what the officers did undercover was, too. It's like
bribing these kids because it's right there -- it's easy money."

[redacted] said she did not know what was on her son's Myspace page.
Lewis said the page -- which could not be found on the site Wednesday
-- contained a large amount of personal information, which he said
underscored the need for parents to know what their children post online.

"I just knew so much information -- I knew what his hobbies were, you
name it," said Lewis, himself a father of six.

Lewis said that the PGPD's online operation is expected to produce
more arrests, and is not exclusively focused on narcotics. The entire
detective bureau participates in the operation.

"We see evidence of burglaries, we see evidence on sex crimes, we see
a lot of information," Lewis said. "They put it right out there."

The Charlotte County Sheriff's Computer Crimes Unit will begin a
similar operation Jan. 1 to search networking sites for information
on illicit activity, said CCSO spokesman Bob Carpenter. Currently,
the CCSO only searches those sites when a complaint is received.

[redacted]'s downfall happened on his cell phone. The
[redacted] student was charged with three
counts of computer pornography and one count of transmission of child
pornography after he allegedly sent three photos of himself having
sex with a 16- year-old to his ex-girlfriend via his digital camera
phone, along with another photo of the girl naked.

According to a PGPD report, he told police he sent the photos because
he was upset about the relationship ending. He said he knew the girl
he had sex with was a minor and that he took the photographs with his
cell phone at his home, [redacted]

The transmitted photographs were first reported to police on Dec. 3
in Manor Township, Penn., where the ex-girlfriend was when she
received the photographs. [redacted]