The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

economist sunjsun1hbune justice sunday may 2 2004 red alerts for models the flare modelling agency pass es along to young people and their parents strong advice about the peo ple they may encounter as they pur sue their careers she lists red alerts to be aware of be cautious of anyone who approaches a young peison directly especially if they ask for home phone numbersor addresses agency owner tracee chambers said legit agents will typical ly pass along their business card and ask that parents get in touch if theres any element of pressure watch out one of the lines used by john allen the phoney new york agent was that he was in town for just a few days and required a meeting right away if anyone asks for money up front the scam alarm ought to be ringing ms chambers said watch out for inappropriate sugges tions such as photo shoots of young sters in bathing suits and such legit agents will not suggest activity thafs not age appropriate staff photobill roberts tracee chambers of flare modelling agency encourages teenage models to use caution and never divulge personal details parents must be wary of predators tricks by jeff mitchell staff writer he was a lonely teenager just like her they met in a online chatroom and struck a friendship that led to more soon the 14yearold girl was sending video and still images of herself naked what the child didnt know was her friend was actually a 55-year- old man sitting at a computer in vaughan had the illinois girls mother not grown curious about her online relationship and alerted police theres no way of telling if the activity would have been detected the vaughan man was arrested april 22 and charged with posses sion of child pornography police seized computer equipment hun dreds of cd roms and discs and 1700 videos from his home detconst kevin byrnes of the york regional police child abuse unit credits the girls mother with being diligent enough to check into her daughters online activities she and the girl went to the police the mother was a little extra curious which is what were asking parents to do detconst byrnes said he recognizes the dilemma faced by parents whose children are reaching their teens we want to protect them but at the same time recognize their need for privacy and their assumption of grownup responsibilities he tempers the debate with a warning there are many many predators out there lying in wait for vulnerable teenagers i think the problem is we get confused about privacy versus safe ty he said a kid doesnt need pri vacy to go on the computer if you want to prevent your kid from getting snatched tough love is the thing to do the stories are enough to send chills down any par ents spine the incidents unfold in a variety of ways but the same startling motive lurks at the bottom grown men attempting to make contact with young people for the purpose of sexual gratification here are two recent incidents reported by york regional police on april 15 they arrested a bradford man on five charges of criminal harassment saying he had if you want to prevent your kid from getting snatched tough love is the thing to do detconst kevin byrnes york regional police contacted a number of local teenagers after their pictures had appeared in the erabanner the man who identified himself as a jstew yorkbased agent asked the girls if they were interested in modelling acting or making pornographic videos he asked them questions about their physi cal dimensions and offered up to 15000 for their services none of the local girls agreed to meet with the man and instead contacted police when they searched his home police found video evidence his scam had worked in the past however hes actually met young women and there have been videos detconst phil moreau said hes luring these young women into making erotic videos police have asked anyone else who may have been contacted by the socalled john allen get in touch with them while they dont believe he intended to meet with the young girls he chatted up on the internet police are concerned the vaughan man arrested april 22 may have coerced some into sending him erotic images of themselves after the alert illinois mother confronted her daughter about her online relationship they went to local police who in turn contacted the fbi said detconst byrnes that agency alerted the rcmp which sent a message to york cops in this case as well police have put out an alert seeking inforrna- tion from anyone else who may have been involved with the sus pect he used a variety of online aliases including marco verdi a 17- yearold boy a 38yearold man named anthony and his own name police remain concerned about the farreaching implications of internet luring which has been cited in a number of cases that have led to young girls being sexually assaulted by men they met online with luring in general that is the concern detconst byrnes said most luring is for the purpose of meeting tracee chambers was par ticularly troubled by news reports of the bradford man posing as a new york agent the owner of newmarket- based fmi agency which grooms youngsters for careers in modelling and acting said such incidents send a chill through her industry whenever they occur even more troubling its an indi cation predators are everywhere i must say in the course of 25 years being here there has been very limited negative press in that area ms chambers said but the recent arrest is a sign they will prey on young girls in small towns and the big city these people are everywhere ms chambers urges young peo ple never to divulge personal infor mation and she tells them to pay attention to their instincts we talk a lot about that sixth sense if you feel that hair on the back of your neck rise listen to it ms chambers said police still want to hear from anyone who may have been contacted by either suspect mentioned in this story call the child abuse unit at 18668765423 ext 7075 or crime stoppers at 18002228477 to be the worlds best selling luxury sedan you have to start by being the worlds best luxury sedan the new 2004 sclass when you combine its inspired good looks with state of the art engineering youll see why the sclass was named the 2003 editors choice best prestige car world of wheels 2003 then when you test drive one its no coincidence youll also see why its the best selling car in its class in canada and in the world mercedesbenz youre ready mercedesbenz markham 8350 kennedy rd 905 3051088 wwwmbtorontoca mercedesbenz