Q: I’ve read and heard many stories about young people putting information on MySpace.com. What I want to know is: How would a parent go about getting the information that a teenager puts on that site removed? Don’t tell me to use parental controls because that is not my question.

A: How old is the teen?

If he (or she) is under 14, he’s lied about his age and inflated it to open an account on the social-networking Web site, which, as you almost certainly know, is immensely popular among teens.

In that case, you can contact MySpace and, after investigating the situation, it will delete the teen’s account. You can e-mail deleteaccount@myspace.com or customercare@myspace.com.

Meanwhile, if your child is 14 or 15 (and if his age is correctly listed with MySpace), his MySpace pages — including whatever personal information he’s posted — can be seen only by people on his friends list.

And any MySpace user of any age can make their profiles available only to their friends.

But if he’s 14 or older, you may be on your own if you want some or all of his information deleted from the Web site. In this case, a honeyed approach may serve better than a vinegary one because you’re probably going to have to work with your child.

Sure, you can delete his information or MySpace account yourself — if you know his e-mail address and MySpace password.

But if your child continues to have access to the Internet, he may simply create another account with another user name.

Parent advocates say it might be better to keep communication open and walls down by talking with your child about your concerns as well as his feelings about being on MySpace.

It’d be even better if you could talk with your child about such things before he ever got on MySpace in the first place.

But once he’s on the site — or on the Internet, in general — advocates say you should definitely monitor his activities there.

For information on monitoring software and tips on how to deal with your teen’s activities online, go to MySpace.com and click on “safety tips,” then on “tips for parents.”

In the 3 1/2 years this column has run, Mike Sullivan is the first person to be profiled twice.

When I wrote about him three years ago, Sullivan was the detective in charge of the Naperville Police Department’s Internet crimes unit. Today, he helps run the high-tech crimes bureau for the Illinois attorney general’s office, concentrating 100 percent of his time on Internet child exploitation.

This means that every day, Sullivan works on these horrors: “Child pornography, solicitation for sex, performing sexual acts with a child, videotaping or engaging a child to videotape himself during sex,” he listed. “Also, harassment, stalking and cyber-bullying.”

In three years, the technology sexual predators have at their disposal has advanced dramatically.

Community sites like MySpace.com, Xenga.com and Tagged.com are popular among kids and serve as a detailed menu for predators.

“It’s not anonymous chat anymore like it was three years ago,” Sullivan explained. “These sites have documentation of maybe a year of a child’s life. There are pictures, hobbies, likes and dislikes.”

Also, the price of hardware commonly used for child exploitation has plummeted.

“Three years ago, Web cameras cost $100, today they’re $10,” he said about the small, stationary video cameras that connect to PCs. “Camera-enabled cell phones weren’t around three years ago. Digital cameras cost a lot more.”

Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan compares today’s technology with an even earlier era:

“When I was growing up, you always had Officer Friendly come talking about Stranger Danger and the guy that was going to flash you in the park,” Madigan recalled. “Now all these predators are on the Internet. Kids are being abducted. Kids are being raped. Technology has allowed criminals to do unthinkable things.”

Thankfully, the technology used capture these criminals has progressed equally dramatically.

Consider the story of Taylor March, who ran a day-care center in her Minonk, Ill., home.

Last year, March boasted in a Yahoo chat room that she was going to broadcast herself molesting a toddler through her Web camera. There were six children in her home at the time.

An Ohio police officer was in the chat room. From the offender’s Internet protocol address, he knew she was in Illinois. The officer called Sullivan’s office.

“Within 10-15 minutes, we were able to ID her and actually capture an image of the woman via her own Web cam,” Sullivan said. “We then sent it to the Minonk police chief.”

Total time elapsed between Taylor’s boast and police walking into her house: a couple of hours.

“It should have been quicker,” said Sullivan. “Unfortunately, even with us being that quick with it, she was able to molest one child.”

The fast communication between the police agencies is a result of the Internet Crimes Against Children task force, to which the Ohio officer belonged. The task force operates in 46 states.

In Illinois, 50 federal, state and local agencies are members (www.illinoisicac.org). The coordinator: Michael Sullivan.

What can parents do to keep their children safe?

“The No. 1 thing I would tell parents is that a sexual predator’s strongest weapon online is secrecy,” said Sullivan. “And a parents’ strongest weapon against sexual predators is communication.”

There’s a “grooming” that takes place when a predator prepares a child for exploitation.

“It’s the same grooming sex predators have used for decades. What they want to do is create a friendship with a child.” And, with it, the secrecy.

“He’ll say things like, `This is our secret. You can trust me. You don’t tell anyone. I won’t tell anyone.’”

The best thing parents can do, Sullivan said, is a decidedly low-tech activity: talk to your kids.

“Sit down with them. Let them show you how they search. Ask them what sites they have created. But keep in mind while you’re doing this: do not overreact. The worst thing you can do is put it into their minds that you’re going to be mad at them, punish them, or you’re going to take the computer away.”

Also, look at what they use for their screen name. See if they’re using their home address. “Explain to them how this might be harmful,” Sullivan said.

And if the kids insist on privacy and refuse to share the information?

“Kids aren’t as slick as they think they are,” Sullivan replied seriously.

“Search the community sites for them yourself. So if you search for `Emily’ on MySpace, you might not find your daughter. But if you search for 14-year-olds in the junior high your daughter currently attends, you may find her. Kids tend to list their school and their home town on these sites.”

Also, you can check their instant-messaging programs, which usually open with the user name already entered. Sullivan finds that kids usually use the same screen name on IM applications as they do on community Web sites.

Another trick: Go to MySpace and start by typing a single letter in the log-in name field. If your child uses the site, the Web browser will auto-complete the name, which you can then search for.

Finally, check out your own computer’s hard drive: Look for temporary Internet files and, especially, cookies. All of the popular social networking sites use cookies.

In addition to open communication, Madigan plans to use a low-tech approach when her 17-month-old daughter is of “Internet age.”

“We’re going to keep the computer that has Internet access in a public part of the house,” Madigan said. “It will be where I and my husband are walking around. Almost 100 percent of the kids that get into trouble have Internet access in their room behind a closed door.”

She added: “It’s OK to have a computer in their bedroom. Just not a computer connected to the Internet.”

Which makes centuries-old, common sense parenting techniques the best preventative measures against high-tech crimes against children.

A Jacksonville, FL man says he was duped and robbed by two girls after attempting to meet with a woman he met on the internet. The victim says he chatted online with a woman, known on her MySpace.com profile as “Natalia”, for two weeks before deciding to meet with her. He says her prfile showed sexy photos, and a blurb which said “just lookin’ for something fun”. That brief, friendly description was all he knew about her before they planned to meet.

PALMDALE, Calif. — Postings on the popular Web site Myspace.com have led the parents of a missing Illinois girl and a private investigator to believe that she may be in Southern California. 

Jessica Liccar, 16, of Crete, Ill., has been missing since June 2 when she crashed the family car. 

The girl was taken to a hospital but released before her parents arrived and hasn’t been seen since. 

Liccar’s parents believe she is traveling with 17-year-old Simon Sotheras, and postings on the social networking site revealed information that the pair may be in the Palmdale-Lancaster, Calif., area. 

Liccar is 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds. She has reddish-brown hair and braces. Her possible companion is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 170 pounds. 

Anyone with information is asked to call 800-487-0947, ext. 9.

Southridge High School officials suspended six students Tuesday in connection with threats on the MySpace Web site.

The online activity, which started with an electronic posting attacking Goth students at the school, led to an exchange of violent threats.

On Tuesday, police officers who patrolled the school reported no violence, said Maureen Wheeler, Beaverton School District spokeswoman. However, Wheeler said, more students may be suspended as Southridge leaders continue to investigate.

Tuesday’s suspensions fall under the district’s broad harassment and disruptive behavior policy, which kicks in when an action disrupts learning.

School officials learned last week that one student had started an online forum attacking the Goth students, a group recognizable by their dark clothing and, at times, heavy makeup.

MySpace, an online network for young adults, allows members to create personal Web pages, host blogs and open discussion groups.

The forum turned into a hostile online exchange as more students logged on, said Randy Kayfes, the district’s public safety director. The back-and-forth fueled rumors that one group planned to retaliate against the other Tuesday, 06-06-06. The number 666 is often associated with biblical warnings of the Apocalypse.

“The rumors morphed and changed, and eventually it got so you couldn’t tell who said what,” Kayfes said.

Police and school officials were unable to identify a specific threat but beefed up security anyway. Beaverton police stationed two uniformed officers at the Southridge campus all day. Nearby Conestoga Middle School officials also warned parents of the concerns.

Some parents kept their children home. The district received a flood of phone calls about the rumors, Kayfes said. Southridge officials recorded 250 absences Tuesday, slightly more than average.

Wheeler said district computers block access to MySpace, which has been at the center of conflicts at schools across the country.

“Students can still get on at home,” Wheeler said of the Web site. “We have no control over it.”

Security teams have discovered a new instant messenger (IM)-based phishing attack aimed at stealing the account information of users of the popular social networking site MySpace.

The scam begins when AOL Instant Messenger users receive a hyperlink promising new photos from someone in their contact list. But clinking the link leads the victim to a bogus California-based website that spoofs the MySpace.com log-in page, according to a Websense Security Labs alert. The fraudulent site captures MySpace usernames and passwords, and then forwards users to the real site.

The malicious attacker can then access the victim’s personal information, such as address and birthdates, stored on their MySpace account. The scam has since been shut down, Websense officials said in published reports.

Accessing the fake site also automatically installs a cookie on the victim’s computer, preventing the phishing attack from being displayed on future MySpace visits, the Websense alert said.

The more than 70 million users of MySpace, one of the world’s most visited websites, are becoming an increasingly attractive target for malicious attackers, experts have said.