Zach Loulias is probably the only 15-year-old in the state who has a police badge.

Like most teens, Loulias is a video game nut, but he never imagined his favorite after-school pastime would set him on an early career in law enforcement.

"I had no idea," Loulias said. Enter his uncle, who is an agent with the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The task force wanted to break into the world of online gaming but lacked the gaming know-how needed to start hunting down online predators.

Loulias said his uncle recruited him to teach agents how to play and sound like teenagers online.

According to federal law enforcement agencies, sexual predators seeking children are leaving the chat rooms and turning to online gaming worlds, like World of Warcraft and Microsoft's Xbox Live, to make contact with minors.

AG chief of law enforcement Ken Wallentine said his team is one of the first law enforcement task forces in the nation to get into the area of online gaming. "We're always trying to stay one step ahead of the predators," Wallentine said.

After watching Loulias play online, Wallentine said he was impressed how fast the teen's hands hit the keys on the keyboard. "His hands were moving so fast you need a fire extinguisher," Wallentine said.

Agents say Loulias has spent countless hours helping agents in their gaming skills, which in his estimation still need a lot of work. "Not to be mean but the investigators really need to get with the times and learn how to play the games," Loulias said.

During an annual awards banquet on Friday, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, himself a fan of video gaming, announced that Loulias was to become an honorary agent with the ICAC task force. Shurtleff presented the teen and his parents with a plaque bearing an official badge. Shurtleff joked that the badge was mounted on a plaque so that Loulias couldn't start flashing it to get out of trouble.

Loulias' mother, Kristin Loulias, said the experience has inspired her son to possibly pursue a future career in law enforcement. "I'm very proud of him. He's worked very hard," she said. The mom said all of her son's friends are jealous that their friend is working in law enforcement helping to patrol the Internet.

"Thanks to Zach, our undercover agents are able to appear, chat and act online more like real teenagers," Wallentine said.

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E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com