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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) – A 19-year-old man from Indiana was extradited to Alabama after police say he sent sexually explicit and inappropriate messages to a 13-year-old girl.
Cybercrime experts and a member of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency explain how parents can protect their children online, and why this man was brought to Alabama from the Midwest.
According to Dr. Hudnall of the University of Alabama, and the current Deputy Director of the Institute of Data and Analytics, the main reason is that your digital footprint can follow you anywhere, even across state lines.
”You can extract lots of digital information from those devices. You can get their past GPS coordinates,” Dr. Hudnall said. “So everywhere they’ve been you can pull back photos and messages that were deleted from the device.”
Per the Electronic Solicitation Complaint, Tristan Doty, 19 of Indiana sent obscene pictures to a child and solicited sex from the child knowing she was underage.
According to police, the girl told her parents Doty sent inappropriate and explicit pictures to her over Snapchat. She also said Doty threatened to harm her.
Dr. Hudnall with UA explains why police in Alabama could have him arrested several states away and brought here.
“That victim was a resident of Alabama so they have to extradite him back to the state of Alabama, so those laws are more at play,” Dr. Hudnall said.
Athens Police detectives and Sergeant Jeremy Burkett with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency didn’t want to give away too many details as to how the man was rounded up in an effort to safeguard their practices, but Sergeant Burkett explains what parents can do to keep their children safe online, and how to answer their questions if parents get any resistance.
“There’s a wide variety of parental locks, time locks, and things that you can put on there to go in and monitor those apps,” Sergeant Burkett said. “I’m not trying to isolate you or keep you from having friends or having social interaction. I just want you to be aware of the potential threats out there, and then make sure your friends are actually friends.”
A detective with the Athens Police Department said Doty bonded out of jail and was allowed to leave the state until his arraignment.
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