Child Safety

So, just as I thought it really couldn't get any worse, I get a knock on my door a couple days ago. Who was it you ask? 2 West Whiteland detectives. Why you ask? To question my son, yes Kyle, again. He's not in any real trouble, with the police that is, but he's in deep s_ _ t with me. Basically my son has been hanging out with an 18 year old boy who likes to set fires for fun. This kid has been buying lighters for these kids in the area, teaching them how to set fires. Telling them what burns well and what doesn't. My stomach was sickened as these detectives were asking all these questions. Has John (the 18 year old kid) ever touched you? Has John ever offered you cigarettes? Keep in mind Kyle was just punished only 1 day before due to me finding out that he smoked with this older crazy kid. YES, KYLE SMOKED... he claims he's only tried it that one time. And he did it cause he felt pressured into it. GOD, My heart was broke. My baby, smoking..My chest hurt for days after finding out. I've talked to my kids, I always talk to my kids about right and wrong, and good and bad. What they should and should not do, and why. You listen to the news, you read articles, you hear other parents talking about their kids getting into trouble, and experimenting with things. But when its your own, you definitely see things in a different perspective. You can then relate to those horror stories. And as this particular scenario may not be too dramatic, I'm afraid the next one will be. I pray that Kyle learns from this, and doesn't make the same mistakes. You may or may not recall hearing about a fire in an old abandoned house in Exton Station recently. NO, Kyle had nothing to do with that, we don't know who did it, but I did find out that Kyle has been playing in this vacant house with his friends. Could one of his friends be the guilty party in this huge fire that broke out? All I know is that he's not playing or associating with anyone until someone gets to the bottom of all this. How do I trust my children? How do I feel like my kids are safe out there with all this crap going on the world. How do I give Kyle his independence and let him venture out there without constantly worrying who he's with and what he's doing? How did I not know that my son was hanging out with an 18 year old adult who was offering to buy these kids lighters, offer them animated porn, teach them all these bad things. So as the Officers were leaving kyle offered to show them where this kid took other kids to light these fires. As the got down there, they saw police cars, firetrucks and this kid John running out of the woods. Meanwhile Kyle's getting out of the police car and this kid sees him. My hope is that he doesn't know where we live thinking that Kyle dimed him out, decided to get pissed off and try to hurt Kyle in any way. I pray to god that this kid ends up in jail for a long long time.