Home
Contact Us
[Posted on Sun, Feb 12 2006]
Parents key to Internet safetyNorth Caldwell seminar offers tips for children's computer usage
Source: The Star-Ledger
nj.com/starledger
Sunday, February 12, 2006
BY ELIZABETH MOORE
Star-Ledger Staff
There are ways to protect children from Internet predators, but it's a matter of parents getting involved with their children's online usage, according to federal and county law enforcement officials.
"You never know who is online on the other end," FBI Special Agent Dave Freyman told a group of parents last week at West Essex Junior High in North Caldwell.
Freyman and Richard Gould, an investigator with the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, cited national statistics that show one in five children using the Internet over a year's time will be solicited by an adult.
The law enforcement officers, who specialize in cyberspace crime, shared television clips of actual conversations between grown men who met teenage girls online and talked the girls into meeting them in person. They also showed a film clip of a mother whose 14-year-old daughter met a man online who lured her to Greece, though they pointed out that one out of three children victimized are boys.
"As parents, we have to get involved in what is going on," said Freyman. "A lot of parents don't know how to use the computer or are leery of it."
Freyman and Gould had several practical suggestions for parents:
Keep the computer in a family room, not a bedroom.
Post rules on the monitor about what is permitted online.
Teach children not to share personal information with strangers.
Do not allow minors to be on the computer for long periods of time without supervision.
"If you go by the computer and you see them shut off the screen (quickly) ask them why," Gould said. "Do not let your children lock themselves away in their room and spend all night and day on the computer."
They also suggested that parents enforce the same computer rules at home as at a friend's house, at school or the library. And they said while software that filters out adult Web sites can be useful, children who are computer savvy can often find ways around the software.
Though chat rooms and Web sites for children were designed for those under 18, the two experts said that adult predators may frequent those chat rooms -- engaging children into conversation about their favorite sports, then trying to find out the name of a child's sports team, school or address.
Gould said children should not use computer nicknames that give away their age, address or other personal information and should not post photographs that identify their names or hometowns on Web sites.
"Monitor your child's activity. You're not spying; you're doing your job," he said. "Tell children that people online will lie to you."
Children who are especially vulnerable to Internet predators may be looking for validation outside the home, may be coming to grips with their first sexual feelings, and may be lonely and spending lots of time on a computer.
Gould said once a predator finds a child, he becomes persistent, "The person turns them away from parents and school and forms a bond with them. The child believes this is the only person who knows them."
The experts also encouraged parents to familiarize themselves with computers by taking an introductory course and learn what tools on their computers show recently viewed Web sites. Parents should be wary of unexplained phone calls, gifts that arrive in the mail, or unknown phone numbers showing up on phone bills.
"Determine if there is a problem and what is the scope of the problem," Gould said. Freyman added parents should praise their children for being honest and talk to them about what to do if approached by a stranger online.
They also encouraged parents to report cyberstalking or solicitation to local police and said the FBI's Web site and the Web site for the Center for Missing and Exploited Children to get further information.
"All we are asking is for you to be more aware and talk with your children," said Richard Vartan, interim school principal at the junior high.
Vartan said the school would consider hosting another program on computer safety for the students.
Elizabeth Moore covers West Essex. She may be reached at (973) 392-1852 or emoore@starledger.com.
[Original Article on the KHOU web site ]