Beware of social network predators: Police

A senior detective has warned parents to teach their children about the dangers lurking in social networks.

He was commenting on the case of a man charged with using a social network site to groom a 14-year-old girl for sex.

The 20-year-old man was arrested at St Clair in western Sydney on Wednesday afternoon.

Police allege he had planned to travel to the Gold Coast to have sex with a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl.

The person he hoped to meet was actually a Queensland police officer posing as a girl and communicating with him via an online social networking site.

Detective Superintendent Jack Kerlatec, commander of the NSW Police Sex Crimes Squad, says substantial resources are devoted to tackling child sex crime and there is strong interstate cooperation between police forces.

"If there's one crime area where you have the strongest collaboration between jurisdictions, it's where people try to prey on children," he told reporters in western Sydney.

"It reaches into everyone's heart."

Kerlatec said the latest incident was a reminder that parents should be more vigilant about their children's use of the internet.

"Be cautious," he said.

"It's like dealing with a stranger knocking on your door at night time."

Some basic skills could be taught to children about awareness of strangers, he said.

"The tools we need to teach our children are about, if it feels uncomfortable, tell someone."

The man arrested on Wednesday has been charged with using a carriage service to groom a person under 16, and using a carriage service to send indecent material to someone under the age of consent.

He was granted conditional bail to appear in Penrith Local Court on 29 June.

Kerlatec could not say which social networking site was allegedly used by the man.

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