Creepers alert! (sorry for the length)

Pedophiles... I didn't feel as though I had to worry about that at such a young age as the children of today do! I can't believe how people can be this way... its like the introduction to cradle robbers and golddiggers, etc. The world is going nuts! I met my first pedophile when I was 18 while I was at a gathering and standing by this guy having a chat (I usually talk to older people anyways) and then my friend later whispers to me "You know he's a pedophile right?" The look on my face was probably priceless because after I heard that I was rather weirded out by this guy and may have said some suggestive language about him. I just wanted to give an example that people who may seem the friendliest can be an undercover pedophile.
Now, that the internet has been born... its easier for creepers to get their thrills and rob the innocence of younger individuals. As blossoming adolescents, some children may not know the dangers of pedophiles. C'mon, the internet messengers and chat rooms are for fun right? Its a place where we can interact and get to know people all around the world? But in another perspective, it is a place to cause havoc, show r-rated material, and even cause death. Our instructor in ECMP gave us two readings on the dangers of Internet chat and instant messengers which I will link at the end of this blog. I read through these and was disturbed by this. Two 13-year old girls lives ended tragically because of the internet. I won't go into a long winded rant about it, but I just thought I should post this! Too many individuals are fallen victim to chatrooms by giving out personal information, fake identities, etc. You cannot distinguish reality from fiction. I know of too many scenarios of people meeting each other to soon discover that it wasn't the same person you were talking to on the computer. The computer screen can change a person to whatever they wish to be. I admit I have gone to chatroom time to time, and sadly the people you get on there include horny guys that can't get any, complete weirdos/as said pedophiles (ewww 57 year olds hitting on you); but sometimes you do get a normal person that is there to engage in conversation. I did a research paper on chatrooms back in high school as I entered a chatroom as some sexually explicit name (ie. Foxygurl or Sexygirl) and then I entered as jsut an average Joe name (ie Sally) and to see the responses I received from both names was quite interesting... hence with those two 13 year olds taht were murdered it can be assumed that maybe their names were rather suggestive or they portrayed themselves too openly to get to where they are today. I'm not completely making the internet/chatrooms a scapegoat to how the children are growing up or getting killed. I just want to address the increasing awareness because frankly it is all around us in society and the internet is just another factor. I have met a few good people on there and I actually became really good friends with one of them. I know a few of my friends that actually met their spouses on there! Just questions I want to leave to ponder... what can be done to filter the internet further so things like this could be prevented (it said in one of the articles that evena parental filters cannot show parents that their kids are going into chatrooms)? Like the "sex talk" parents give their children, should they also give them an "internet awareness" talk? Have any of you had experiences with chatrooms, messengers, or whatever other source to interact with people which led to questionable things?

http://news.com.com/2010-1071-922124.html
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/1823797/detail.html