Craig Loomis never had to lurk behind bushes waiting for unsuspecting young boys. He didn't have to roam the streets trying to coerce children to take a ride with him.

From the comfort of his West Salem home, behind his computer screen, Loomis could lure boys into having sexual relationships with him. And he did. That's what made Loomis -- who pleaded guilty in April to sexually assaulting a boy -- so dangerous.

While the Internet is considered a great tool by many it provides a dark anonymity for a new breed of child predator.

It's the dark corner of the Internet that many parents are unaware of. It's a place most would rather believe didn't exist, but it does.

No, it was never that hard for Loomis to prey on children.

He's not the only one.

Seeing the danger

Schools teach kids about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. Parents encourage their children to avoid people who use drugs or alcohol. All important lessons, but all too often parents and schools are not aware of the many dangers children face on the Internet.

It's a great tool that has a lot to offer, but it has a dark side.

Eric Szatkowski knows something about the dangers lurking on the Internet. He has been a special agent for 14 years with the Wisconsin Department of Justice's, division of criminal investigation.

Szatkowski has spent the last five years investigating Internet crimes involving children. Szatkowski said Internet crimes have increased in that time because of the anonymity it provides predators.

"The problem has exploded not only across Wisconsin but across the country," Szatkowski.

Szatkowski gives presentations throughout the state to schools, law enforcement, businesses and other organizations showing just how easy it is for a child to become a victim online.

In a manner of minutes, using the skills he learned working undercover, Szatkowski can find an online predator and there are plenty of them out there. Now it's easier for predators because they don't have to worry about being seen.

In the pre-Internet days predators would have to go out in public to find their victims. Now they can just get on the Internet and find an unlimited number of children.

Law enforcement is actively dealing with Internet crimes across the country and it cuts across all communities, from big cities to small towns. All that's needed is Internet access with a child.

Making a connection

The La Crosse County Sheriff's Department received reports about Craig Loomis from a police detective in Keene, N.H. The detective had been posing as a teenage male and having conversations with Loomis over the Internet.

The conversations were sexually explicit and included graphic images of Loomis recorded by web cam. Loomis also exchanged images of nude children.

Investigators caught Loomis during a sting operation in the summer of 2003. Eric Szatkowski created a profile to converse with Loomis. The conversations were sexually explicit and eventually Loomis initiated a meeting with the person he presumed was a 13-year- old boy.

Two weeks after Loomis was arrested and charged for using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, child enticement and second-degree sexual assault of a child, a 9-year-old boy accused him of assaulting him twice in 2002.

La Crosse County District Attorney Scott Horne, "There is a strong correlation between possession of child pornography and acting out the abuse with real victims."

Loomis pleaded guilty in April to sexually assaulting a young boy and trying to solicit other youth on the Internet. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Addressing the problem

In 1998, Wisconsin was awarded $300,000 in federal funds that the Attorney General Jim Doyle used to establish an Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Wisconsin's ICAC Task Force is made up special agents from the Department of Criminal Investigation and city of Milwaukee police detectives.

The task force investigates the computer-facilitated sexual exploitation of children on the Internet, conducting both proactive investigations on the Internet, as well as responding to requests for investigative assistance from local law enforcement agencies throughout the state.

Since active investigations began in February 1999, the Wisconsin ICAC Task Force has opened 168 cases and had 60 arrests. Forty-six of those arrests were travelers — people who traveled to or within Wisconsin to engage in sexual activity with actual children or individuals whom they thought were children.

"The cases that we've had in La Crosse County really show the prevalence of sex offenders using the Internet and their willingness to travel to participate in a sexual act with a child," Horne said. "It shows the ease with which the Internet can be abused."

In the ICAC Task Force's first full year of operations, Wisconsin was responsible for 30 percent of the child enticement arrests by Internet crime task forces nationally.

Education is the key

In November, Eric Szatkowski gave a presentation to administrators from the 26 area schools that make up the Cooperative Educational Services Agency #4. The agency, based in West Salem, serves schools in western Wisconsin. CESA found out about Szatkowski after he had given a presentation earlier in the fall at Holmen Middle School.

After sitting through Szatkowski's presentation, "The Darkside of the Internet," many of the administrators were surprised to find just what is out there. "They didn't realize how fast children or parents could get these unwanted responses," said Michelle Kotek, a CESA administrative assistant. "It was unreal."

Szatkowski gave a similar hourlong presentation to students and teachers at Holmen Middles School in October. He made a point to visit a school since he was in the area for another presentation.

Joanne Stephens, associate principal at HMS, helped arrange Szatkowski's visit to her school.

She said the teachers all thought the presentation was worthwhile and informative.

"They were also made aware of things students can do on the computer that can get them into situations they don't want to be in," Stephens said. "The purpose of having him here was to make everyone aware."

Knowledge vacuum

While Szatkowski said education is important all around, it isn't the schools and law enforcement he's necessarily worried about, it's parents.

There is no shortage of tools and safety features that can keep kids safe, it's just a matter of using them. Unfortunately, Szatkowski said he often encounters parents that don't recognize there could be a problem, that their children could be victimized.

"There is a vacuum of knowledge of the Internet," Szatkowski said. "Parents who have not been brought up in the computer generation just do not understand what their children can get in to."

The responsibility for children being safe on the Internet does not fall squarely on anybody's shoulders.

Szatkowski said that a lot of responsibility falls on schools and administration to make teaching Internet safety a part of the curriculum. He envisions a program similar to D.A.R.E. that teaches children how to be safe on the Internet.

"It's just like drug education, you're not going to reach 100 percent of the people," Szatkowski said. "But if you can rescue some or at least one child it's worth the effort.

At a glance

From the report, "Online Victimization," based on interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,501 youth ages 10 to 17 who use the Internet regularly and found that:

Approximately one in five received a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet in the last year.

One in 33 received an aggressive sexual solicitation — a solicitor who asked to meet them somewhere; called them on the telephone; sent them regular mail, money, or gifts.

One in four had an unwanted exposure to pictures of naked people or people having sex in the last year.

One in 17 was threatened or harassed.

Approximately one quarter of young people who reported these incidents were distressed by them.

About one quarter of the youth who encountered a sexual solicitation or approach told a parent.

Almost 40 percent of those reporting an unwanted exposure to sexual material told a parent.

In households with home Internet access, one third of parents said they had filtering or blocking software on their computer at the time they were interviewed.

Online safety tips

Look into safeguarding programs or options your online service provider might offer. These may include monitoring or filtering capabilities.

Keep the computer in the family room or another open area of your home.

Have children use child-friendly search engines when completing homework.

Be aware of any other computers your child may be using.