FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. – A 20-year-old Georgia man accused of traveling to Palm Coast to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex has been arrested, according to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies said Zachary Dyksterhouse, of Hawkinsville, Georgia, was arrested Tuesday evening and charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a 14-year-old child he met on Xbox.
Dyksterhouse and the girl had been communicating through Xbox for several months, deputies said.
The girl, who is from out of state, traveled to Palm Coast with her family for a vacation. Deputies said Dyksterhouse traveled from Georgia to meet the girl for sex.
Deputies were alerted of the incident after the girl's family members called 911 and reported a suspicious man in the backyard with his pants unzipped, according to the Sheriff's Office.
The investigation revealed that Dyksterhouse had engaged in sexual activity with the girl, deputies said.
Dyksterhouse was taken to the Flagler County Detention Facility, where he remains held on $150,000 bond, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Sheriff Rick Staly urged parents to monitor their children's social media accounts, email accounts, any gaming chat rooms they may be using and all internet activity.
"Smartphones, tablets, computers and all of the electronic methods are easily accessible to children from any device," Staly said. "Parents should keep their kids off of social media as long as possible and, if they have computers or smartphones, parents should be checking them daily to ensure they are being used responsibly."
The Sheriff’s Office has recommended that parents set age-appropriate restrictions on electronic devices and limit the amount of time spent in front of screens.
Jacksonville attorney Randy Reep, who has children ranging in age from 6 to 18 years old, reiterated the sheriff's recommendations to parents.
"It would be a folly not to monitor the use of technology with your children," Reep said. "I happen to not think my children should be given too much privacy because I need to protect them from all that comes in when you open that door to the internet."
Reep pointed to the responsibility of parents to consider the internet as if it were a stadium full of strangers.
"The reality is: When parents see their kids on the headphones with a microphone, they are literally connecting with the entire interweb as they would were they on any other website," Reep said. "Would you let your children go and interact with anybody in society that you didn't first vet? Again, when that earpiece and mouthpiece is on them, they are, in fact, doing that. They are in places virtually that you have no idea where they go. Putting them in a dark room at my house for long periods of time? That’s not the way we roll at my house, and I doubt that's the way you roll at yours."
The Sheriff's Office added that it is also important to have honest conversations with children about the dangers of communicating with strangers and sending photographs over the internet.
"The overabundance of ways to connect with our kids can make being a parent today a bit more difficult," Staly said. "But I also think it needs to make parents more aware than ever of who your child is talking to and what they are saying. Don't let your child become a victim."
