After meeting a teenage boy through the Internet, a Nevada man went to the Houston area and signed to take him out of school for a sexual rendezvous, according to US federal authorities.

The 29-year-old Las Vegas man was arrested by FBI agents and Houston police on federal charges of travel with intent to engage in sexual acts with a juvenile. He also faces state charges of sexual assault of a child.

The case poses troubling questions about the safety of the Internet for minors. The FBI would not say when or where the assault took place, or how the man gained access to the 14-year-old boy except to acknowledge that they met in an Internet chat room while the boy, then 13, used a home computer.