Rebecca Droke, Post-Gazette photos
	Point Park University freshman Alicia Kozakiewicz, 18, listens to a question during a seminar on Internet safety for fourth-graders in McKees Rocks yesterday. Miss Kozakiewicz was abducted and abused by an online predator when she was 13.
	Ms. Kozakiewicz speaks to fourth-graders about Internet and chat room safety at St. John of God Catholic School in McKees Rocks yesterday, part of Point Park University's Community Outreach Partnership Center.

Alicia Kozakiewicz spent four horrifying days chained to the floor in the bedroom of a 38-year-old man. Now, five years later, she is sharing her experience to warn other children of the dangers of the Internet.

Now 18 and a college freshman, Ms. Kozakiewicz spoke to two fourth-grade classes yesterday at St. John of God School in McKees Rocks, as part of an outreach program with Point Park University.

The students, mostly 9 and 10, listened as she recounted gruesome details from her own experience.

"I'm basically here to save your life," Ms. Kozakiewicz said. Then, she flashed on the screen a picture of the missing poster that was issued for her in January 2002.

"That's me when I was 13," she said. "I made some really bad mistakes."

She was referring to the time she spent meeting people in online chat rooms.

"I was always on the computer. I was addicted to it," she said.

During that time, she began chatting online with a 38-year-old man named Scott Tyree in Herndon, Va.

On New Year's Day, 2002, she left her home -- while her family was cleaning up after dinner -- went outside and met Mr. Tyree, a computer programmer. She left with him.

Ms. Kozakiewicz said she knew the man she had been chatting with online was 38, but it didn't matter to her at the time.

"It was kind of like brainwashing," she said. "I really thought this guy was my best friend."

That changed after Mr. Tyree drove her to his townhouse in Virginia.

There, he held Ms. Kozakiewicz chained to the floor with a belt for four days. She ate only once during that time and was beaten and sexually assaulted.

"It destroyed me, my life, my family," she said. "I was almost another body in the morgue."

She was rescued four days later after a man in Florida received a Web cam picture of her from Mr. Tyree. He recognized her as the girl missing from Pittsburgh and called the FBI.

Mr. Tyree was convicted in federal court and was sentenced to 19 years in prison. He is currently being held in Butner, N.C.

During her program, Ms. Kozakiewicz, who is now majoring in forensic psychology at Point Park University, focused the attention primarily on Internet safety.

She asked the students if they knew what a pedophile was, and then she listed some inappropriate questions they could be asked while online.

She included: A/S/L, meaning age, sex and location, as well as "are you a virgin?"

She told the children to be careful of what they reveal about themselves online, either in chats or on profile pages, and to make sure that their screen names are both innocent and gender neutral.

Ms. Kozakiewicz explained why children seek out adult friends online, including that they crave attention and feel as though no one in their real lives understand them.

Though her audience was fourth-graders, Ms. Kozakiewicz didn't tame down her words yesterday, telling them that children can be "brutally murdered," by online predators. She also showed pictures of two young women who were killed by people they met on their MySpace.com profile sites.

"Can you imagine some sick jerk owning you?" she asked them.

Her program at St. John was the first time Ms. Kozakiewicz spoke to such a young group. Typically, she targets children who are 12 or 13.

But sharing a message involving such adult subject matter didn't bother the parents who attended.

Jennifer Moran's son was 5 when Ms. Kozakiewicz was taken, and they lived just down the street from the family in Crafton Heights.

"Ever since then, we've had our computer shut off," she said, her voice breaking. "We prayed for you. It was devastating."

She thinks her son probably didn't grasp everything Ms. Kozakiewicz talked about, but that she expected him to ask her follow-up questions later.

Yesterday's program was also the first time Ms. Kozakiewicz answered very detailed and specific questions about her experience.

Though the children did not ask many questions related to the Internet or chat rooms, they peppered Ms. Kozakiewicz with others:

"How long were you missing?" one asked.

"Four days," she responded.

"Were you scared?"

"Terrified," she answered.

"Did he beat you?"

"He did," she said.

Then, she added, "It's really hard to sit here and talk about it. That pain will always be there."

Ms. Kozakiewicz told the students that the holidays for her are terribly hard now, and that she remains afraid of the dark. She added, though, that she has finally found a counselor who is helping her. Over the years, she's done about 20 similar programs.

"It's actually cathartic," she said. "Instead of having a nervous breakdown, I take all that hurt and angst and pain and turn it into saving other kids."