Seneca Valley guest speaker addresses online child predators, AI threats
JACKSON TWP — At the auditorium of Seneca Valley Senior High School, Alicia “Kozak” Kozakiewicz spoke to an audience of parents and teachers on Thursday evening, Nov. 9, telling the story of how her life was nearly ended by an internet predator more than two decades ago.
The event, “Saving Lives and Stopping Predators,” was intended to provide parents the tools and information to prevent their children from suffering Alicia’s fate.
“I really do believe that every child is going to be the victim of something at some point,” said Alicia near the start of the presentation.
On New Year’s Day of 2002, Alicia — then 13 years old — was lured into a stranger’s vehicle near Pittsburgh after making a connection with someone over the internet. No one saw her again for four days.
FBI agents eventually found Alicia held captive in Virginia. Over the year prior to the abduction, her captor, Scott Tyree, had groomed her over the internet before abducting and abusing her.
Alicia became one of the first known cases of online catfishing and grooming, and she has spent the last 20 years trying to prevent it from happening to anyone else. Just one year after the incident, at the age of 14, she founded the Alicia Project, an advocacy group dedicated to raising awareness of child sexual exploitation and online predators.
Her efforts led to the creation of “Alicia’s Law,” which ensures a steady revenue stream to investigators of internet crime so they can pursue and prosecute crimes against children. So far, the law has been passed in 11 states. She also previously served as the director of outreach and global impact for the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Alicia spent much of her presentation explaining how child predators on the internet operate and think, and telling parents to watch out for warning signs that may indicate their child is being groomed over the internet. In her own case, her kidnapper had been chatting with her online for nearly a year while pretending to be someone else.
“Predators are so good at what they do,” Alicia said. “I liken grooming to brainwashing.”
As the internet evolves and online predators change their tactics to keep up with the times, Alicia’s presentation has also had to change.
A significant portion of Thursday night’s presentation was dedicated to the emergence of artificial intelligence technologies and the ways they can be exploited for nefarious purposes, such as catfishing or extortion. She brought up the example of a criminal potentially collecting extortion money by using AI voice-cloning technology to generate the voice of a child begging for help.
Earlier on Thursday, Alicia spoke to seventh-grade students at Ryan Gloyer Middle School. She also visited the Seneca Valley School District in March.
Alicia praised the children of Seneca Valley for treating her with respect and addressing her with thoughtful questions.
“(Angela Kotula), one of the organizers of this event, arranged it so hopefully I can return every year and speak,” Alicia said.
