Do your kids know their online friends?

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - He called himself "Rose," but he was really a Facebook stalker who targeted a Kent County teenager.

But Thursday, Joseph Parent, 22, of Walker, was in court, sentenced to up to seven years for stalking a minor, using a computer to commit a crime and possession of child porn - more than 27,000 images.

His case and others like it raise the question: Just how vulnerable is your child on social Web sites?

Target 8 went looking for answers by putting some local teens to the test.

A Target 8 investigator posed as Alex Brown, a make-believe 40-year-old from Grand Rapids who likes the Detroit Lions and puppies. Alex Brown got an account on a popular social networking web site.

With written consent from parents, Target 8 put their teens to an online test.

Would they accept Alex Brown, a complete stranger, as an online "friend"? The moms who worked with Target 8 believed their children would pass the test.

"He won't accept it," Stacey Peterson said.

"I'm pretty confident she's probably going to blow you out of the water," Heidi Schoolman said of one of her two daughters tested by Target 8. The other daughter, she said, likely wouldn't even notice the "friend" request.

Elizabeth Davis believed her 12-year-old daughter would question the "friend" request.

"She may email and say, 'Do I know you?'" she said. "I'm hoping that my rule sticks, that she will deny it, but with her age, she's finding this new-found independence. If not, we're going to have to have a serious discussion. That was more of my reason for doing this, to see what she would do."

All three moms already stalk their own kids on social networks.

"It's my job to protect them, and I will do whatever I need to do to protect them and if that means invading your privacy, if you will, then that's what I'll do," Davis said.

And, they preach about the dangers of having strangers as on-line friends.

"By having them (strangers) on your 'friend' list, they have access to your life and what you're doing and where you're at, and that's just not safe," Davis said.

"There's just way too many stalkers out there; you just don't know what you're going to get into," Schoolman said.

The dangers are real, said Kent County Sheriff's Deputy Tom McCutcheon, who speaks to high school students about the potential for on-line trouble.

"That person who's a predator, they know," McCutcheon said. "They're out there searching around like a shark swimming around in water, and they're trying to find those kids that are vulnerable."

Craig Bailey is one of those sharks. He's a 26-year-old from Muskegon who set up fake Facebook accounts, friended girls and sent them obscene photos. He's on probation.

Matthew Bauman, a 37-year-old career criminal from Grandville, recently got more than seven years in prison for friending girls as young as 11 on Facebook. He offered money for sex, even set up a meeting with one at a park.

And, there's Joseph Parent, the 22-year-old from Walker. He called himself "Rose,' friended a Kenowa Hills teen-aged girl on Facebook, hacked into her email and stalked her.

"You know what? When my computer's open and I'm allowing people into my computer, I'm not safe," McCutcheon said.

And that takes us back to our test.

After sending our phony "friend" requests to our original targets, Target 8 waited. We also sent a "friend" request to 15-year-old Zachary, with his mom's permission.

"I would expect that he would deny, because that's the discussion we've had, unless it's somebody from school, or family, or somebody that we know," his mom, Lynn Terhune, said. "You hear about the child that gets upset with mom and dad, takes off, meets somebody at a playground, or a mall, or something like that and they turn out not to be who they said they were."

Wiithin 15 minutes of our request, Zachary accepted -- no questions asked.

"This would probably be one that slipped by," Zachary said.

When Zachary agreed to the "friend" request, he gave "Alex Brown" access to his life -- his list of riends, the name of his girlfriend, where he went to school.

His mom said it would lead to a discussion -- about on-line security.

"If nothing else, it's a good thing for other kids to learn from, too," she said.

And, what of those other kids? Our original targets?

Two of those teen-aged targets interrogated Alex Brown on-line.

"I'm wondering is this the alex who kaylee introduced to me just wondering thanks please right back," 13-year-old Emily asked.

And, as a stalker would do, "Alex Brown" lied. "Yes, it is. Sorry it took me so long to write back."

No luck.

Then, again as a stalker might do, "Alex Brown" changed tactics and names. He became Erika Jones, a 16-year-old who likes kittens. And, still, no response. No new friends.

So, the final tally: Of the five teens we tested, two ignored us; two questioned us, but didn't accept, and one became friends with "Alex Brown."