HOUSTON -- More than a year ago, the Local 2 Troubleshooters found men surfing the Internet searching for young girls to have sex with. Even though arrests were made and the men were shown on television, it did not stop other predators from trying to do the exact same thing. And once again, the Local 2 Troubleshooters' cameras were rolling.

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Men More Cautious, But Curiosity Gets Best Of Them

The men showed up one by one. Local 2 has aired story after story on men who try to meet children on the Internet, but they showed up anyway.

The exclusive Local 2 Troubleshooters reports last year led to several arrests and an ongoing federal criminal investigation. But it seems that nothing has changed.

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The Troubleshooters team got back online this month, jumping into chat rooms to find the problem even more widespread.

The station used the same tactics that law enforcement uses: pose as a 13- or 14-year-old girl in various chat rooms. The adult men lined up to initiate sex talk and then some arranged a meeting for sex.

Armed with eight different cameras, Local 2 waited for the men to show up at a Houston home it had rented. The men thought they would find a little girl, but instead they found the Troubleshooters.

A 41-year-old man from Spring appeared nervous about getting caught. Using the screen name, Gooman35, he provided a picture and asked, "You would let a 41-year-old man kiss you?"

The Troubleshooters pretend-14-year-old girl named "Lori" answered, "yes." He responded, "Well, then, let's get it on."

Then, he typed, "Here is my dilemma. I need to know you are indeed Lori and not one of the honorable law enforcement officers that could put a 41-year-old man in jail. Gooman35 is allergic to jail."

Local 2 offered him several chances to back out, but the man wanted to meet the girl.

The Troubleshooters waited, but he did not show up. He drove by the house a few times and then he got back online.

He said, "Sorry, I just can't afford to be caught in some type of sting operation. I want to trust you, but as I drove by, I just imagined my face being plastered all over a news channel."

The Troubleshooters offered more chances for him to back out, but he wrote one final note, "Just to make it official -- you are not the law authorities, right?

Minutes later, he was at the Troubleshooters' door.

"Charles, I'm Stephen Dean with Local 2 News. What are you doing here, sir? I want to talk to you about this chat with this little girl. You sent the picture of you. I want to talk to you about what you said in the instant message, sir," Local 2's Stephen Dean said.

"I was (inaudible,)" the man said, after he ran to his car.

"You were very, very explicit in this chat room. I want to hear all about it," Dean said.

"I was not explicit," the man said.

"Yes, you were very explicit," Dean said. Do you want to go over it, sir?" Dean said.

The man drove off quickly.

Later on, another man showed up who said he is 25, from Katy, and he brought wine coolers.

He parked his Harley down the street and carried a backpack.

He told the pretend-seventh-grade girl that he was chatting from work, where he's a computer professional, and he provided a picture where he posed with a little girl.

Online, he asked, "Are you a virgin?" and he typed, "I am going to lick you from head to toe." And when the girl said her mom was away, so does he want to spend the night, he answered, "Hell, yeah."

The man showed up at the door even though he asked how he could make sure it was not a trap.

"Jeff, I'm a reporter with Local 2 News. What are you doing here, man? We're doing a story on the chat you had with this little girl. I want to talk to you about it, sir," Dean said.

The only words the Troubleshooters could make out were "This is messed up" as he ran the opposite direction from he where he parked his Harley. He changed clothes before he jumped back on his bike and drove off.

Another computer technician who showed up was in no hurry to leave.

Local 2 told Clever Bonilla, 22, that he was chatting with a 14-year-old virgin. He then sent a lewd picture, telling the girl it was him.

Then, he showed up to met her.

"You're sending her pictures of your private parts, you're asking her if she's a virgin," Dean said.

"That wasn't me, sir," Bonilla said.

"Well, what are you doing here, then?" Dean said.

"I just came because someone told me to come," Bonilla said.

During chats, he asked the teenager if she was naughty and if she liked a particular sex act. Then, he asked if there was anything she'd like to learn from him.

"Haven't you seen the news, people getting in trouble for this?" Dean said.

"That's correct," Bonilla said.

"You've seen the news," Dean said.

"Correct," Bonilla said.

"And you're here anyway," Dean said.

Then, he admitted that it really was him who typed all those things before showing up at the door.

"But I wasn't here for sex though," Bonilla said.

"In your instant message, that's all you were talking about," Dean said.

"That's correct," Bonilla said.

"You're sending pictures of it," Dean said.

"I wasn't thinking. I wasn't thinking," Dean said.

"You were thinking long enough to come over here," Dean said.

"True, because I really wanted to talk to her because I felt bad when she said that she cut school and I feel bad for people who are just going to get an education," Bonilla said.

"So, you're a counselor now?" Dean said.

"No, not at all," Bonilla said.

Then, he admitted that he should not have sent the lewd picture to a teen and he should not have shown up to meet her.

"(It) doesn't make any sense," Dean said.

"Correct," Bonilla said.

"Did you make a mistake here?" Dean said.

"Yes, sir," Bonilla said.

A 34-year-old man chatted sex with two of the Local 2 pretend girls -- once while the station was posing as a 13-year-old and another day when the station posed as a 14-year-old girl with a different online identity.

He wanted to meet both for sex, but found the Troubleshooters instead.

"Oh, oh, I thought so," he said.

"(We're) wondering what the deal is here," Dean said.

"Go ahead, go ahead," the man said.

"You were chatting a real short time here before you were talking about sex with a 13-year-old," Dean said.

"I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I (expletive) knew it," the man said.

His name is Tony Nemec Jr., from Conroe.

Online, he asked if she is sure 33 is not too old. He also asked if she really likes sex and he asks to watch the girl take a shower. He also said, "This is a no-strings fling, right?"

He also typed, "I hope this doesn't get me in trouble."

Nemec has hired attorney Jack Carroll to defend him.

"I can't speak for exactly what was going through his mind. All I can say is that he was not intending to meet with a 13- or 14-year-old kid, nor was he, had any intention to have sex with a child and that's not what he was looking for," Carroll said.

But others are coming to terms with what happened.

After confronting Gooman35, the man e-mailed Local 2 to say that he was sorry and the curiosity got the best of him. He offered to turn himself in or do whatever is necessary.

It's unclear whether law enforcement will start another investigation, looking into these latest examples of Houston-area men looking for underage sex online.

Parents Can Protect Their Kids Online

Parents can help protect their children from online predators.

Sgt. Gary Spurger investigates cyber crime for Precinct 4 in Harris County. He also teaches parents about the hazards of the Internet.

His biggest piece of advice was for parents to be involved with their children.

That means knowing what they are doing and whom they are talking to.

"Just because you tell your child, 'Look, you can only instant message. You can't go into chat rooms' doesn't protect them," Spurger said.

There are lots of programs to monitor a child's Internet activity.

Spurger said parents should use all of them and tell their children they are being monitored.

"The thing that the parent needs to understand is that you need to give them a little privacy to do their thing with their friends, but make them understand that you are going to be checking on what they're doing," he said.

Parents may need to educate themselves in order to monitor a child's activity on the Internet since online chatting has a language of its own.

For example, "P911" means "My parents are in the room."

"POS" means "Parents are looking over my shoulder."

"WTGP" means "Want to go private?" or in other words, do you want to move into a private chat room?

"It's a whole evolving language. It doesn't stop," Spurger said.

So how do parents keep up?

"You've got to ask (your child), 'What are you saying? What are you talking about?'" Spurger said.