It isn’t just computers any more that is leading to children being molested by strangers they meet online.

Edward Stout, a 27-year-old man from Richmond Heights, Missouri, has been sentenced to ten years in prison for engaging in sexual relations with an underage California girl.

Mr. Stout and the underage girl met on X-box Live in April 2008, and in Jan. 2009 he drove non-stop for 30-hours to California to meet the girl.  Upon meeting they engaged in a sexual encounter.  There is no indication of how the relationship was discovered, but Mr. Stout plead guilty to an “illicit relationship” and will now spend ten years in prison.

We have said many times here on StarterTech that you need to keep computers where they can be monitored for usage by your children, but that goes for any device that allows them to communicate with the world.  We’re all for them being online, but would you let them hang out with adult strangers in person?  Then why should you let them do it online?