00:00I was groomed and lured from my home by an internet predator who kidnapped me and held
00:06me captive in his basement dungeon where I was raped and beaten and tortured.
00:30I met this person online in a chat room.
00:34I thought that they were somebody around my own age.
00:37And what I didn't know was that they were immediately beginning to groom me.
00:51He pointed to the back.
00:53He told me there was a bag back there with restraints and he was going to put me in the
00:56trunk.
01:01Now, people have asked me, why didn't you try to jump out of a window?
01:11Why didn't you try to do this?
01:13Why didn't you try to do that?
01:15All these things that people think that they would do if they were in that situation.
01:19Don't ever do that.
01:21The person did exactly what they needed to do to survive.
01:30The victim blaming was present in my case.
01:50I was blamed.
01:51My family was blamed.
01:53I was one of the first cases of internet luring.
01:56People could not understand how something like this could happen.
01:59And because it was new, people ran with whatever they thought would explain it.
02:20At the age of 14, I created the Alicia Project and started going into schools to talk to
02:25kids about internet safety.
02:27That's one of the things that gave me the strength, is that I had already been out there.
02:31The adults were talking, but the story wasn't getting to the kids, and it wasn't getting
02:35to the kids in the way that it needed to get to them.
02:46Support the children.
02:48Save us from pedophiles, the pornographers, the monsters.
02:54The boogeyman is real, and he lives on the net.
02:58He lived in my computer, and he lives in yours.
03:02While you're sitting here, he's at home with your children.
03:12It helps to fund the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces, much like the group
03:15who helped to rescue me.
03:18Right now, they are so overworked and underfunded.
03:22Some states don't even have a full-time ICAC officer.
03:27That's crazy to me.
03:37I wasn't even alerted that he'd been released.
03:41I found out through the media.
03:43How was that going to help anybody?
03:46How is that going to allow anybody to move forward and to reclaim their lives?
03:56I realized, I've got to change this.
03:59This is my new mission.
04:01Pedophiles cannot be released back into the neighborhoods of their victims.
04:20We have to believe victims.
04:23Please, any time anybody comes forward to you about anything, listen to them.
04:30Help them, support them, and try to get them the help that they need.
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