Livonia softball coach arrested

There’s a warning for parents after a Livingston County man trusted with the care of teen girls faces serious charges.

Sheriff investigators say 26-year old Jeremy Socola sent sexually explicit text messages and pictures with his cell phone to young girl athletes.  He also allegedly used computer instant messages.

Socola coached softball and football at Livonia High School.  He's currently on suspension with the district and being held in jail on bail.

A number of parents are buying cell phones for their kids so they can keep in touch throughout the day.  Most say it's for emergencies.  But a lot let their kids text message and send pictures too. 

Pam Weaver from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says more and more sex offenders are using cell phones - not the computer -to contact kids, "Parents need to sit down and talk with their kids about what's appropriate and what's not.  Even predators know there is a paper trail on the internet so they're encouraging kids they've met on MYSPACE to go to text messaging on phones because kids can erase it."

So what can you do?  The first thing is parents can say no to text messaging.  It's as easy as telling your wireless provider to disable the option to receive or send messages.  As far as pictures are concerned - buy a phone without a camera.

It's hard to read messages that were erased - the companies only keep archives for a short time - and it's hard to get your hands on them.  If you're paying for the phone service - you can get more activity details online.

"You can get call detail which provides more detail as to who's sending and receiving the messages," said John O’Malley, Verizon Wireless.

http://www.co.livingston.state.ny.us/Sheriff/home.htm