Here Are Ways to Stop Inappropriate Contact
Video Transcribed: Hi, I’m a dad’s rights attorney in Tulsa, Oklahoma with Dads.Law. My name is Brian L. Jackson. So this is the second part of a video series that I started. What are your rights and duties if your child has been inappropriately contacted online by either another adult or a child? Today we’re going to talk about what rights and remedies you have.
Obviously, you are required to report this, and the first and most direct redress might be just to go straight to law enforcement and file a criminal complaint. Clearly, you have a legal duty to do that. That is your first-line response. The problem with it is whether or not action is taken… Well, there are a couple of problems. First of all, whether or not action is actually taken against the perpetrator is discretionary on the cops and, ultimately, on the district attorney, and you don’t have a lot of control over that. So that’s one problem. The other problem is that may or may not terminate the inappropriate contact, or the inappropriate relationship.
So what else can you do? You can certainly report it to your ISP. If it’s a social media site, you can report it to the site. Some other legal remedies you might have would be… A really obvious one is a protective order. You can file a protective order in this situation. It would be under an abuse theory or under a… There is a specific section under the statute for criminal protective orders that includes sexual assault and lewd behavior, and inappropriate conduct could include that, or contacts could include that. And the protective order is a ready remedy available that comes with criminal teeth against the individual involved.
You may also be able to seek out other injunctive relief in civil court. If you are dealing with a situation where you have a parent who has endorsed this behavior, this would clearly be grounds to file a motion to modify custody. If the other parent knows about it and isn’t taking action or is endorsing it, you could file a motion to modify it. You may even have grounds for an emergency. But you do have rights in that situation and you definitely should take action. You also have a right to know if the other parent tells you something’s been going on and they’re being vague about it, you have the right to know what’s been going on, even if you’re non-custodial. And there are some legal remedies available on that too, including filing a motion to modify and serving them with discovery.
So you do have remedies in that situation. It’s a scary situation and nothing any adult wants to face. But I mean, understand there is hope and you do have legal remedies, and you should consult with an attorney if you discover something like this has been going on. And one place you can consult with an protective order attorney in Tulsa about your options would be Dads.Law, where fathers are not disposable.
