How many times have you been asked that in a chat room? (For those of you not-so-chat room savvy, "asl" means "age", "sex", "location"). Like most people I know, I lie almost every single time I answer the question – assuming I haven’t already blocked the person. If I do answer honestly, it’s usually only a half-truth, like "21/female/California" (sounds nice, eh?). So when a 12-year old girl flees her family home in Northern Manchester England, to meet a 31-year old American Ex-marine whom she met in a chat room, I have to laugh at these fools.

The Unofficial Pennington/Studabaker Online Affair Fool Hitlist goes something like this:
Fool #1 Shevaun Pennington’s parents. According to Manchester police, Shevaun Pennington and Toby Studabaker had an online romance for about a year. Her parents claim that they knew she chatted online to people, but they kept the computer in the kitchen - for supervision of her activities - and had no idea she had become so close to one person. "She loves punk rock and spends loads of her spare time on the computer, we keep it in the kitchen and knew she was talking to people online, but didn't know there was anyone in particular," Mr. Pennington said. Yah, OK.Fool #2 Toby Studabaker'. Studabaker's brother Leo told CNN that Toby Studabaker, whose wife died last year, believed the girl was a 19-year-old college student. Imagine his surprise, when she ‘fessed up - or he heard from the front-page newspaper - she was actually 12. (Assuming of course, he didn’t already know she was 12). A/s/l? 19/F/England. Hmmmmmmm…

Fool #3 Shevaun Pennington. She could very well have played Studabaker for a fool, and her parents too, but this "child" has no idea what she has gotten herself into with a man old enough to be her father, and with very grown up man things on his mind.

Fool #4 The Rest of Us. To have sympathy for any of these people and how the bad, bad Internet corrupted them is probably the most foolish of all. The Internet, and the chat rooms it holds, are there for the taking. It sounds preachy but it’s true, it’s the parents’ responsibility to monitor a child’s online behaviour. Hit control-H once in awhile. Say "no". Read their most recent documents. Open their pictures. (Note: if you see a pic of a 31-year old guy in a Marine uniform, call the Feds). Oh, and log their chats.

For Studabaker’s part, I’m going to take a long jump here, and guess that he was lonely, being in the military, having lost his wife recently. He had a year-long lapse of reason. But he probably knew all that, which is even more reason to check a person out. It’s not as hard as one might think, but it does require the flexing of one’s fingers.

Pennington has gone back home, and is apparently safe and sound. Studabaker was arrested in Germany on suspicion of child abduction and is not fighting extradition to the States.

Pity the fools we ignore because someday they will be wise.