15-year-old uses video gaming skills to help catch online predators

A 15-year-old Utah boy was recognized by Utah's attorney general as an honorary investigator for lending his video gaming skills to help the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force catch online predators.

Zach Loulias was honored Friday during the AG office's annual awards banquet for volunteering countless hours helping agents learn the ropes and lingo of the online gaming world.

"Zach is doing a great job helping us catch bad guys on the Internet," Shurtleff said. "He is making the online world a safer place for everyone his age."

Loulias, a nephew of one of the task force's agents, said he never knew how big a problem online predators can be in online gaming worlds until he got involved with the task force. Now he says he is telling all of his friends of the danger after they didn't believe such a thing could happen.

As for teaching agents how to be believable gamers, the moppy-haired 15-year-old said they need more practice. "Not to be mean but the investigators really need to get with the times and learn how to play the games," Loulias said.