The Jefferson County district attorney is warning parents about a new website that’s been used in attempts to lure children into sexual encounters.
A chat room called IMVU.com is a website that uses animated “avatars.”
The avatars are created by users to represent themselves, and are a gaming device familiar to many children.
Participants can create characters using hundreds of options for physical attributes including skin color, hair color and style, and clothing.
They can also choose personality characteristics such as “flirty” or “bashful.”
District attorney’s investigator Mike Harris has received many calls about the website from concerned parents in the past several days, according to Pam Russell, a DA’s office spokesperson.
The characters look like animated boys and girls, and one parent thought her child was simply playing an interactive game with dolls.
DA Scott Storey says the use of avatar animation makes the site especially appealing to young users.
“It appears to kids to be a perfect world where they can create themselves to look like they want to look and dress like they want to dress,” he said in a statement. “They can direct and star in their own video. In reality it is just one more resource for predators to hide behind a facade as they lure our unsuspecting children.”
One man, Steven Wayne Wood, 26, was arrested on suspicion of Internet luring after investigators say he used the IMVU website.
Wood allegedly approached a user he believed to be an underaged girl for sexual contact. Instead a law enforcement officer was behind the avatar.
He was advised of charges this morning in Jefferson County and is scheduled for another hearing on Feb. 27.
