Phone chat predator harbors runaway teen
By STEFANIE THOMAS
Updated: 06.02.10
Debbie McNeese and her 16-year-old daughter, Kalyn Painter, spent Tuesday snuggling on the couch and licking their wounds - emotionally and physically.
Kalyn was missing for six days and returned home Memorial Day, much to McNeese’s relief, but the story behind Kalyn’s nearly week-long absence is of great concern to the Porter mom.
McNeese said Kalyn admitted she spent her time away from home with a much older man she met through the Quest chat line, a telephone dating service with local phone lines in several cities and states, including the Houston area.
“This man is my age, and Kalyn said she was down in Corpus Christi with him all this time,” McNeese said, adding she is sure sexual encounters took place. “It makes me so mad - she’s only 16. What gives those men the right to come into a child’s life and disturb what their parents are trying to teach them? They’re still children.”
Although Quest’s website and chat line specify users must be 18 years of age or older, the company’s website states it “does not screen the members registering to Quest in any way.” No provision of a birth date is required, and the website states it assumes no responsibility for dates gone wrong.
McNeese said her daughter clearly stated in her Quest personal profile that she was 16.
“And that phone lit up like crazy,” she said. The phone calls to Quest chat lines are local numbers, she said, and there was no reason to be suspicious when they showed up on the phone bill. In a time when most media coverage and law enforcement education initiatives focus on Internet predators, McNeese said a potential threat by phone didn’t even occur to her.
“I’m old-fashioned - we don’t even have Internet at home,” she said. “The thought of a phone chat line didn’t even cross my mind.”
PREDATORS PREY ON THE VULNERABLE
McNeese said Kalyn only had her cell phone since March, when she turned 16, and no Internet access is available to her at home.
City of Houston Crime Victims Advocacy Director Andy Kahan said chat lines are are yet another form of communication that allows predators to hook up with victims.
“The Internet and other modern-day technological forms of communication are inevitably the new trolling ground for would-be predators,” he said. “Predators stalk areas where young teens hang out, like in the old days, when the playground and parks were the hunting ground. This playground has now evolved, thanks to modern technology.”
According to McNeese, meeting older men through chat lines like Quest has almost become a sort of sport for some young girls and she encourages other parents to be alert.
“From what I understand, my daughter isn’t the only one who does this,” she said, indicating that she was made aware of other New Caney HS girls participating in the practice. “And it’s not just at her school.”
New Caney Independent School District officials said they are not aware of older men meeting young students via Quest or other chat lines.
“We are unaware of any trend, established or growing, on our campuses where girls call and meet men on phone chat lines,” said Kelley Mattlage, spokeswoman for New Caney ISD. “If someone has knowledge of something like this, we would encourage them to share it with our campus administrators or local law enforcement so that something may be done to prevent a potentially harmful situation. We also strongly encourage parents to speak with their children about the dangers of talking by phone or online with strangers and stress the dire consequences of getting into a car with someone you don't know.”
In Kalyn’s case, McNeese said her daughter is impressionable, like most teens, and, as a girl raised by a single mother since early childhood who grew up without a father figure, craves male attention, making her vulnerable to the advances of older men.
“My daughter made a mistake, I admit that,” she said. “I have to get it through her head that she can’t run off with older men she meets on the phone, but that doesn’t mean these men can just take advantage of a child.”
McNeese also acknowledged that Kalyn had run away once before, when a man she met via a phone chat line picked her up from school and took her for a day.
This man, an Humble resident, is currently under investigation by the Humble Police Department for possible charges of sexual assault of a child. At age 16, Kalyn has not yet reached the age of sexual consent, which is 17 in Texas.
And although the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office assessment classifying Kalyn as a runaway proved to be accurate, McNeese said her child did end up in the hands of a predator and she spent several sleepless nights, worrying about Kalyn’s safety.
“Law enforcement says that if the child takes clothes, a cell phone, and posts on message boards, it’s a runaway,” McNeese said. “But in Kalyn’s case this last time, she didn’t even take her heart medication. And what gives you the right to think they’re not worth looking for when they meet someone online and leave voluntarily? That is automatically a big red flag, in my mind. If anything, that should be considered a warning.”
McNeese said an unknown person was able to somehow contact Kalyn while in the grasp of the Corpus Christi man and told her to come home.
“The man was afraid to bring her back, so a friend picked her up,” McNeese said.
Kalyn is currently recovering from a sprained ankle she suffered during her outing, cause unknown. And after she was seen at a local emergency room to be checked out upon her return, McNeese took her to a children’s facility in Conroe with the intent to get her admitted for a week or two so she could regroup and get some counseling. Kalyn wasn’t accepted due to her ankle injury.
“Kaylyn has been a good kid up until the last few months. She doesn’t steal, she doesn’t talk back. There were no fights in school. The worst thing she did was to get caught straightening her hair in the school bathroom,” McNeese said. “But sometimes you need help, no matter how good a parent you are.”
McNeese said this chapter is anything but closed for her. She plans on forming a group to bring awareness to teens that chat lines can pose a danger, that running away can result in big trouble, major heartache - maybe even death.
“I think they need to see graphic pictures, hear about people like Ted Bundy, know the kind of people who are out there, just waiting for them,” she said. “I’m not done with this. I’m just getting started.”
http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2010/06/02/kingwood_observer/news/2310phonechatko.txt
