Update : Commenters have yet to answer this question : Can you give me a good reason for a 9 year old to be in an Internet chat room? Can you?

     While there is still some confusion as to who Jessica's primary caregiver was (father or grandparents) I still find this distubing:

The sheriff says a computer in the girl's home is being examined for possible clues. She'd recently taken a computer safety class about the danger of meeting strangers in Internet chat rooms.

     Why would she be in internet chat rooms? Can anyone explain a good reason for a 9 year old to be in an internet chat room? At all? If you think that this is a good idea then you don't have a firm grasp of the way chat rooms work. There is NO WAY TO CHECK REAL AGES IN A CHAT ROOM AT ALL. Having your kids in a "kids only" chat room is like herding them into a petting zoo for pedophiles. If you allow your kid unsupervised Net access at this age you should be pronounced an unfit parent.  

     Classes like this simply induce a false sense of seurity as they reduce the dangers of Net access down to the level of say.... bicycle safety. It ain't even the same ballpark folks. Send them to the class and then you SIT BY THE FUCKING COMPUTER EVERY TIME THE ETHERNET CABLE IS IN IT. Don't like that? Tough shit. Guess you will just have to catch American Idol on TiVo unless thats too inconvienient for you?