Teen to take on her alleged online sex harasser

Georgia high school student Kelsey Upton says she's always careful about using the Internet. But that didn't stop her from becoming a victim of online sexual harassment.

Last fall, 17-year-old Kelsey got a text from a number she didn't recognize.

When she asked how the man found her, he directed her to a porn website -- where she saw her name and cell phone number next to a graphic photo of another woman.

Authorities found the person who allegedly posted Kelsey's information. So far, he's gone unpunished.

On "The Early Show" Friday, Kelsey Upton shared her story, along with her dad, Randy Upton.

Kelsey said she was "absolutely terrified" when she learned her name and phone number appeared on the site.

She said, "I didn't know who had this information. I just -- i had no idea what to think about it, because I was completely concerned about my safety."

Co-anchor Chris Wragge noted Kelsey's father Randy has been very diligent about making sure his daughter was not online.

He said, "She just got a Facebook page a few months ago, doesn't have a whole lot of access to websites and things like that."

He asked Randy, "To see something like this perpetrated when you have been so closely guarding her, how did that make you feel?"

"I was devastated," Randy said. "You know, we totally lost our sense of personal safety, because of the fact that we have monitored her Facebook, have monitored her MySpace, and you know, we're not controlling parents, but she's aware of the fact that there is a threat out there, and when I saw thatm, as a parent, we had done everything we could, and then to know that somebody from the outside was able to do this, it terrified me."

Wragge noted authorities discovered the alleged perpetrator was an ex-boyfriend of a friend of Kelsey's.

Kelsey doesn't know why someone would do this to her.

She said, "We had never had any words exchanged or anything like that. ... There's no justifiable reason. But there's just not even something that I can even think of to give him in his own mind a reason to do something like this."

Kelsey said she felt "extremely violated."

"The fact that he's not being punished, to me, is not right," she said. "And I think I don't want this to happen to anybody else, and I want something to happen to him."

Her father said lawmakers have let them down.

"This is a classic example where the criminal statutes have not kept pace with the Internet," he said. "I felt helpless to protect my daughter, because I expected this individual to be arrested for what he had done, because of the fact that the photograph was so sexually explicit. It was just not a nude image. It's very graphic image. And I expected him to be arrested for that."

Cyber safety expert Parry Aftab, executive director of Stopcyberbullying.org also weighed in on the case.

She said in this case there are laws, and said to Kelsey's father, "I'm not sure that we're finished looking."

Aftab, an Internet and privacy security lawyer, said, "There was a law in 1998 where a young girl in Joliet, Ill. had been targeted by a maybe who posted online pretending to be her saying, 'I've been having sex with Daddy for a long time, I now want new partners, name, address, telephone number. That law was put in place. Had Kelsey been a few months younger, this man would now be in federal prison because of that law."

She added, "But I think there are other things we can look at here. It has to stop. And the most important issue we need to remember is innocent kids who do nothing wrong. That was not her picture, this is not sexting, she didn't do anything wrong, she just happened to be a victim of somebody who decided he was going to set her up for sexual attack and harassment."

Wragge reported the alleged perpetrator of this act has a hearing on Monday.

Randy said he, his daughter and his wife will attend the proceedings and testify against this him.

Aftab said she thinks there will be some legal recourse in this case.

She said, "This young man is in a school where young men like this don't go. And I think I'll help in any way I can."