By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - Detective Mark Hayes stands 6 feet, 4 inches tall and has a deep voice - but in the anonymity of cyberspace, he easily passes for a teen-age girl, vulnerable to the advances of grown men lurking for sexual prey.

During the past six months, he and other detectives - mostly volunteering their own time - have trolled Internet chat rooms, pretending to be teen girls. They were propositioned for sex a shocking number of times, Detective Hayes said. Investigations led to arrests of 13 men accused of traveling to Hamilton to try to meet the "girls" from the chat rooms for sex.

Police announced the results of their sting at police headquarters here Thursday.

Butler County Prosecutor Robin Piper, whose office gave $500 to help police buy equipment for the stings, said all a young girl has to do is give her name and age on an Internet user profile and "it's like you've dropped a raw hamburger amongst a bunch of piranhas."

Detective Hayes said he could guarantee that, within 10 minutes or less in a chat room, he could get someone to proposition his teen-age "screen name" for sex. That's why parents need to make sure they closely monitor their children's Internet activity and talk to them about the dangerous people who might try to meet with them, said Police Chief Neil Ferdelman.

While past generations were taught to warn their children about strangers lurking on the streets and in parks, "the stranger is now in the computer screen," Chief Ferdelman said.

With the formation of the Pornography and Child Exploitation (PACE) unit, Hamilton police join a growing number of law-enforcement agencies trying to prevent adolescents from being lured into sex acts with older men.

The men arrested as a result of PACE's efforts range in age from 19 to 65, and came from as far away as Huber Heights, Ohio, and Walton, Ky. Seven of the 13 listed addresses in Cincinnati. Occupations included carpenter, pilot, telemarketer and engineer. All thought they were meeting girls 14 or 15.

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com