Her parents sent her to Catholic schools, and her mother, a retired district judge, now jokes that she wants her money back.Her daughter’s beat is in the vilest corners of cyberspace, in chat rooms indicating “fetish” or various subgenres of flagrant peccancy.After months of prowling Internet chat rooms, posing as the mother of two young daughters, Detective Michele Deery thought she had a live one: “parafling,” a married, middle-aged man who claimed he wanted to have sex with her kids.But was he just playing a twisted game of seduction? The anonymous nature of chat rooms tends to inspire exaggerated behavior in otherwise normal, respectful people.One commentator calls chat rooms "safety valves" for strong emotions, opinions and urges that most people can't, or wouldn't want to express in real life [source: The Industry Standard].

Start by talking to her about the responsible use of the Web.What's your opinion on teens getting involved in social networking and online chat rooms?I've read some of the teen conversations on the sites my daughter wants to visit, and they seem relatively harmless. While the Internet can be a wonderful educational and communication tool, it can also be a dangerous place for unsuspecting young teens.One of the unfortunate realities of chat rooms is that sexual talk -- sometimes harmless, sometimes explicit -- often appears in rooms that have nothing to do with dating, sex or relationships.If you're going to spend a lot of time in chat rooms, you have to learn to ignore all the noise and concentrate on your own conversations.