WESSON – Noting that electronic crimes were quickly becoming oneof the leading duties of his office, Mississippi Attorney GeneralJim Hood pointed out the state’s successes in the fight againstInternet cyber crime Thursday while speaking to the seniors of BoysState.

While serving as the ninth and final speaker to the MississippiAmerican Legion Boys State program, the state’s top prosecutorexplained the various types of cyber crime and noted how easy it isfor his office to apprehend e-offenders.

Hood said ID thieves, child pornographers and sexual predatorscould become easy prey for the AG’s office since the very toolsthat allow them to operate can lead law enforcement right to theirdoors.

“The technology that brought us all this ability has alsobrought us the ability to track ’em down,” Hood explained after hislecture. “It’s amazing to me – the technology is there to find mostelectronic communications that go out. Even computer-savy criminalsthink they can clean off their computers, but in some instancesthose communications are still out there.”

Hood explained his office was connected to the National Centerfor Missing and Exploited Children, whose super computer in Oregonhas files and images on 8,000 children identified as victims ofabuse.

When child porn is acquired in Mississippi, the NCMEC supercomputer can check the images against its database. If it finds amatch, it e-mails the downloader’s information straight to Hood’soffice.

“Pornography images of a child under 14 are easy cases to make,”Hood said. “We get the e-mail, we get a subpoena and we make anarrest. If you don’t believe what you do on a computer can betracked – it can.”

Hood called cyber crime “the Wild West,” but noted that progressis being made on the state and national levels.

He and the attorneys general from seven other states lead arecent successful effort to have the profiles of 29,000 sexoffenders removed from the social networking Web site MySpace. Hoodsaid 166 of the offenders were in Mississippi, using their realnames on the profiles.

Hood said the efforts of the AG coalition will now be turnedtoward Facebook – a networking site similar to MySpace.

But while enforcement efforts are being made at the top, Hoodurged prevention efforts to be made at home. He said prevention wasthe first and most crucial step in battling cyber crimes.

“Kids live their lives on these social networking sites,” hesaid. “We have to get involved – just sit down with a kid andobserve what they’re doing on these sites. Ask them to teach youhow it works. They love to show us older folks things.”

For not only cyber crimes, but all crimes, Hood promotedmentoring programs as a solid and much-needed tool for prevention.He urged the 300 seniors of Boys State to get involved in mentoringprograms as soon as possible.

“You can have a lot more influence on a second-grader thansomeone like me or a parent,” Hood told Boys State. “High schoolerslike you – those kids think you’re the coolest folks on the planet.You can have the greatest impact by working with a youngperson.”

Hood said his office would be stepping up its efforts to fosterthe creation of mentoring programs, even in the face of a decreasedbudget for such programs. Hood said a $3.5 million per yearmentoring budget was shot down by state government last year, buthis office still has good contacts with those who were involved inthe program.

“There’s no silver bullet in the war on crime, but preventiongives you the most bang for your buck,” Hood said. “It’s a lotcheaper to spend $300 per child in a mentoring program than it isto spend $22,500 per person – the latest estimate by my office – tohouse them at Parchman.”

Hood’s mentoring message was taken to heart by two seniors fromLawrence County High School, who cornered Hood after his lectureand beseeched him for help in starting a mentoring program inMonticello.

Tyler Penny and Gavin Mendus said they wanted to start a BigBrothers Big Sisters program in Monticello.

“There’s a major lack of it in Lawrence County,” Penny said. “Ifwe can get that started, it will do some major good in ourcommunity.”

Mendus pointed out that the Boys and Girls Club of LawrenceCounty fulfills its purpose, but that purpose is not applicable toall forms of mentoring.

“I went there when I was a kid, but it’s not really good formentoring throughout different ages,” he said. “It’s just kind oflike a babysitter.”

Hood said the most effective way for the Lawrence County seniors- and anyone else looking to start new mentoring programs – was tobegin by going through local schools. Hood said more information onmentoring programs could be found on the AG Web site,http://www.ago.state.ms.us/.