People have already said a lot on this, but I just had to chime in!

I thas been my experience that every kid online and off knows that there are "perverts" and "child molesters" out there. They just don't give a shit. Some of the kids will even lead on and tease those online predators they do encounter (a lot, actually) and then rebuff and block/report them. Yes, there are a few complete idiots, and a few highly sheltered kids who are unaware, but they are few and very far between. The larger set of kids who are actually at risk are those who think they *want* to have a relationship with a random pedo they met on the internet. They don't, of course. No-one who thinks they want a relationship with a stranger just because that person wants to have sex with people simmilar to them actually wants that: they really want attention and love and haven't found it in more normal interactions (poor family life, no friends, abusive relationships, etc.).

As far as vigilatism aka what can we do?:
We can be good netizens. Just go about your buisness, make friends, as the subjects come up remind your young friends about the dangers, whatever, and report the abuses of bad people as you find them. It's not worth your time to go "hunting", and you will probably not find any more than you would just tooling around per normal. On myspace, for instance, a quick message to "Tom" will get a profile looked at and if your accusations are verified (you can also include contents of messages as evidence), they can delete that profile, and ban that IP. Does this stop them? no, but it sets them back. They have to find a new ISP so they can have a new IP, or figure out how to 'safely' use another computer (the library isn't really an option for such people, is it?) and when they do have a new profile, they have to start from scratch finding potential victims.

I am often amazed at how much good a person can do just by being a good person in general.

Love in Christ,
~CSL