To Catch a Predator: Protecting Your Kids from Online Enemies Already in Your Home (Paperback)

by Chris Hansen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
An urgently needed primer on how to protect kids from the increasing threat of online predators

Over 40 million Americans have seen Dateline’s ongoing popular series To Catch a Predator, which has caught over two hundred potential child predators. While the show exposed this epidemic, Chris Hansen’s book, To Catch a Predator, shares the true stories of families who have been targeted by predators, revealing the tactics predators use to manipulate their victims and why even cautious families can be vulnerable to their attacks. He also offers suggestions from police officers, therapists, and child predators on the best approaches for preventing these crimes. Most critically, he provides parents with concrete steps they can take to protect their kids today, including how to initiate meaningful conversations with their children. To Catch a Predator teaches parents and children what they need to know before the next predator strikes.

About the Author
Chris Hansen is the correspondent for the successful To Catch a Predator series. For the last twelve years, he has been an on-air correspondent for NBC’s Dateline. Since the Dateline specials have aired, Chris Hansen has testified before Congress on this issue as a nationally known authority on protecting children from child predators.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Plume (February 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452289270
• ISBN-13: 978-0452289277
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #626,489 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #35 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Home Computing > Internet > Web for Kids
  #94 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Business & Culture > Digital Law

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It will help everyone stay safer and be smarter online...., March 18, 2007

By	Parry Aftab "Parry Aftab" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: To Catch a Predator: Protecting Your Kids from Online Enemies Already in Your Home (Hardcover)

I've written several books on the subject and am generally considered a leading expert on cybersafety, especially when it comes ot kids online. When Chris first approached me asking what I thought about kids on (...)and cyberbullying, I was surprised. I had heard he was writing a book, but thought it would just be more of the kind of thing he was doing on Dateline.

It turns out it is much more. And, it's a fast and good read. Easy, not techy. Compelling. Passionate. Inspiring. Touching. Empowering.

It shares real stories. (Which we have learned is the best way to convey the safety messages in a compelling way.) It uses common sense. It brings together expertise from many of us in the field.

I told Chris that I won't be writing another book for parents about overall cybersafety. He did too good a job in this for me to need to write any more.

So, don't buy my book. Buy his.

It's more than a guide on cybersafety, more than a book adaptation of the Dateline To Catch a Predator series. It's a primer on living with kids in this new world where everyone is wired and wireless 24/7.

Thanks Chris.
and thanks to all of those incredible people who helped tell the story of kids online, by sharing their own personal stories, and pain, and sacrifices and passion.

(...)

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars NOT TO BE MISSED IN THE INTERNET AGE......!!!!!!, April 12, 2007

By	Dana Y. Bowles "DYB" (West Chester, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: To Catch a Predator: Protecting Your Kids from Online Enemies Already in Your Home (Hardcover)

In this revealing and no-holds-barred book based upon his dateline expose, Chris Hanson takes us back into the dark underworld of the sexual predator, more specifically those that lurk online looking for opportunities to steal the innocence of our children. For readers who have seen the series on dateline, some of the information may be a bit repetitive; for those that have not, the book will be especially intriguing. Hanson does an excellent job of driving home the importance of not "inviting" strangers into your home via the internet; of impressing upon parents the need to know exactly what your children are doing online, and with whom. Just as parents know who their children's friends are offline, they should be just as informed with regard to their online activities.
Chock full of information on how to keep your children safe from cyber predators; disturbing case studies on victims, and the perpetrators themselves. Most interesting perhaps is the impact upon the families and friends of the perpetrators....interesting, compelling and disturbing reading.


DYB

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every parent makes this decision about the internet (whether they think about it or not)..., April 2, 2007

By	Charles Runels, MD "research physician & fath... - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: To Catch a Predator: Protecting Your Kids from Online Enemies Already in Your Home (Hardcover)

As the father of three sons, I had to decide on this issue: do I prevent my sons from using the internet or do I teach them to use it safely. Just to allow them to use the net without teaching them safe practices is about as smart as giving them a handgun and a pocket full of bullets.

Since the internet has become such an important part of business and communication, I feel to keep them from using it at all is to handicap them.

In this book, Hansen outlines a simple plan for using the internet safely. If you don't do anything else with the book, I'd recommend reading the 20 step plan for parents and children outlined starting on page 231.

I own the software recommended in the last chapter and have foud that to be helpful as well.

Charles Runels, MD