PROTECTING OUR KIDS: THE JULIE POSEY STORY

US, 2003, 95 minutes, Colour.
Annie Potts, Michael O'Keefe.
Directed by Joanna Kearns.

Protecting Our Kids is a topical telemovie, focusing on thirteen- and fourteen-year-old girls and their involvement in on-line chat rooms. What begins as curiosity, becomes involvement, an expression of need which is preyed upon by paedophiles who use the chat rooms - especially those with provocative titles - for sexual relationships.

The film focuses on a mother who had been molested when she was a girl and feels very strongly when she discovers her daughter involved in a chat room conversation during the night and going to meet the man she was corresponding with. Her husband had been urging his wife to get a job. She goes to the police and volunteers to do unpaid work, corresponding with people in chat rooms, careful not to raise the sexual issues or to create entrapment. The film shows the effect on the mother, the effect on the husband and his wariness of what was happening, the effect on the daughter and the relationships within the family. It also shows the luring of several paedophiles and their being arrested, going to trial.

Annie Potts is strong and sometimes abrasive as the mother. Michael O'Keefe seems over-stern as the police connection.

1. The title, a film of the early 21st century, social issues of pornography, the internet, paedophiles?

2. The Colorado setting, middle America, the suburbs, schools? Ordinary workers in shops? The police? The backgrounds of the paedophiles? A credible portrait of a social problem?

3. The focus on the issues, the role of the law, the police, entrapment, the paedophiles making the moves? The role of the central character and her work?

4. American families, care of children, their work at school, friendships, gossip about the internet, curiosity about sexuality? The role of the chat rooms? The young girls going into the chat rooms out of curiosity - and following through?

5. Kristen Posey and her relationship with her parents, her friend, going into the chat room, feeling appreciated when the visitor asked for her short stories? Her inability to show her stories to her mother? The discovery of her being on-line? Her lies to her parents? Going out to meet the man? Her mother following, confronting the man, taking Kristen home? Her stern reaction? The response of her father? Her school friend - and saying that while she was on-line, she never followed through?

6. The impact on Kristen, her work, her relationship with her mother? Gradually helping her mother in her work on the internet? Her mother's wanting to trap the man who contacted her?

7. Julie Posey, her husband suggesting she get a job? Her reaction to the internet? Going to the police, the discussions with Michael and Cassandra? Their wariness? Their agreeing to her work, her going on-line, the intensity, the time taken, her husband's reaction? The different equipment and his supplying them? Her pretending to be a young girl, getting Kristen's help? Going on-line, the various chat people, the build-up to the first entrapment, the man's background, the brutality of the chat room, the overtones of incest? Wanting the mother to look on at the sexual encounter? Going to the town, the hotel, the room, the man coming with flowers, his coming in, his intended purpose? His being trapped, the taped evidence against him? The man in Texas, the contact, the decision to meet, his coming, Julie and her being told not to go near the entrapment, Cassandra posing as the young girl, Julie seeing him, fearing he had a gun, going to the diner? The arrest, the court case, the criticisms of Julie and her methods? The audience knowing about her being molested as a child because of the flashbacks? This being revealed in the court, her husband's support, the scene where she told Kristen about what had happened to her? The reactions of Michael and Cassandra?

8. Michael, very stern, reluctant? Cassandra and her listening, her support? Their marriage? The court case? Their finally supporting her?

9. The initial paedophile coming into the chat room with Julie, trying to keep him on-line? The revelation of who he was, his prominent background? The meeting, her being wired, the accident and the disconnection? The threats, the man meeting her? Her appealing to the police? Their finally getting there?

10. The character of Julie, strong, under a strain from her past, care about her daughter, love for her husband? Stern manner, mellowing? Her husband, his support, coming to value his wife's work?

11. A story of ordinary people, a prominent social problem, a way of contributing to unmasking paedophiles - and Julie Posey exposing over sixty?