"I met a man online," Alicia Kozakiewicz, told Ivanhoe. "He lured me away from my home on New Year's day. He took me to Virginia, held me captive in a basement for four days and tortured me and raped me."

Kozakiewicz knows the dangers of chatting with the wrong person online.

"My parents were always like what are you doing, what are you doing and I would always have an assignment up on the computer," said Kozakiewicz.

Like most predators, Kozakiewicz's captor played on this young teen's vulnerability. "He was on 24 hours, whenever I needed him, to tell me whatever I wanted to hear," said Kozakiewicz.

For eight months, he chatted with her, befriending her. Finally, Kozakiewicz agreed to meet her online confidant face to face. "I walked out my front door during a family meal to meet a stranger, to meet a friend who was really a monster in disguise," Kozakiewicz said.

Held captive for days, Kozakiewicz was chained up and sexually assaulted. Friends of her abductor turned him in -- and Kozakiewicz was rescued. "They found me. I was terrified until I saw the three letters, FBI on the back of their jacket and I knew I was safe," said Kozakiewicz.

But Kozakiewicz is just one of many teens putting their lives at risk. Twenty percent are solicited by sexual predators over the internet. In fact, 16 percent of teens are willing to meet with strangers they've met online, eight percent have actually met with someone.

Armed with her computer, Detective Rachel Gardner works undercover to track down online predators. "We go into a chat room, send a message to the entire room and then wait to be contacted," Detective Gardner told Ivanhoe.

Detective Gardner says you need to watch closely what information, how innocent it may seem, is being put up on the web. "Don't put a picture of yourself. Either find one from the internet or put a picture of your pet on your front page. Set it to private and don't allow anyone you don't know into the inside of your MySpace page," Detective Gardner said. A single picture showing a school uniform can lead a sexual offender directly to your child. Parents need to check their children's web page -- and check it often.

Kozakiewicz is trying to help teens become more socially savvy on the web. "High schoolers try to rationalize it or try to make it seem like it could never happen to them because that's their way to protect themselves," said Kozakiewicz.

She tells parents to have blocks like net nanny on their computer. Let your child know it's on there. It blocks strangers from getting onto their websites. But that's not all, "Have stealth-ware on your computer that your kid doesn't know about," said Kozakiewicz. It tracks every move your child makes online.

And parents, don't believe everything you see. Kids can have more than one MySpace page. "They'll have one to show you, as a parent, which will be perfect, and then they'll have one with whatever they want as a kid," said Kozakiewicz.

Most importantly -- make sure your child knows that there can be consequences to chatting with strangers on the net. "They need to understand that this really can happen to them really, really easily," said Kozakiewicz.

If you would like more information, please contact:
Washington State Patrols
Missing and Exploited Children Task Force
http://www.wsp.wa.gov/missing/ourkids.htm