Volusia Sheriff's Office hosts second event in series of youth safety forums

DELAND, Fla. - Tomoka Christian Church in DeLand was filled Monday night with concerned parents and families about the increasing dangers kids face online.

"It worries me what they're looking at. I try and keep up to date. I think I'm pretty tech-savvy, but there's a lot out there that I'm not aware of," Heidi Trivett said.

She was one of several dozen people hoping to hear directly from the Volusia Sheriff’s Office about how to better keep track of her kids’ online activity.

"There's a lot out there that we're not aware of, and the only way that we can educate ourselves is by coming to items such as this, to meetings, to bring that back to the children," she said.

Sheriff Mike Chitwood was among the group of presenters. He talked about local cases involving children as young as eight being targeted online by sexual predators.

"You think you're talking to a 17-year-old when in reality you're talking to a 39-year-old man who has done this before or is a child predator," he said.

And there's a new troubling trend: group grooming. The FBI describes it as criminals banding together to exploit children by pretending to be their age and making them think inappropriate conversations are normal.

"It's a process. It takes place over time. It doesn't start with anything overtly sexual. But it certainly is on the road to that," Robert Tripp, Special Agent in Charge with FBI San Francisco, told FOX 35's sister station KTVU.

With social media becoming more prevalent and easier to access, Chitwood says it’s never been more important to monitor what your kids are doing.

"Know who their friends are, know who they're texting, know what games they're playing, know who they're talking to," he said.

The third forum of the series is happening Wednesday, Aug. 9, from 6-7:30 p.m. at Deltona City Hall.