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Internet Safety
Brown Bag 3.0 Summary
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| Parents and Professionals learned tips for helping
youth stay safe in cyberspace
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Thank you Karina Berzins from
the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), Internet Crimes Against Children
(ICAC) for the information you shared with us at our Brown Bag 3.0 on Tuesday
February 2.
Here are some the highlights
from the presentation as well as some of the links Karina provided.
The top two Internet Safety
issues facing youth today are:
Cyberbullying
- 42% of youth have been
bullied online.
- 21% have received mean or
threatening messages by email or other messaging options, such as online chat
and text.
- 58% have not told their
parents or another trusted adult.
Top technologies used by
youth in Cyberbullying:
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Cell phones
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Social networking sites like
Facebook and MySpace
- Instant messaging
- Email
- Photoshop (yes the photo
editing program)
-
Blogs
Sexting is the act of
sending sexually explicit messages or photos electronically, primarily between
mobile phones.
- 29% of Sexting messages are
sent to people youth have never met.
- 90% of the pictures youth
thought were only seen by the eyes of the person it was sent to were seen by at
least one other person.
- Only 25% considered they
could get in legal trouble.
Reasons these pictures are
being shared…
- 52% thought other
people would want to see the pictures and/or videos.
- 35 % thought it would
be cool and wanted to show off.
- 12% thought it would
be fun.
- 17% thought it would
be funny.
- 17% were just joking
around.
-
26% were bored.
Sexting is a serious issue! Youth can face felony level charges of
child pornography, sexual exploitation, and defamation of character for taking,
sending and sharing these messages and photos. Those convicted must register as sex offenders. Suicides across the country are linked
to Sexting.
Karina searched and found
160-165 different options for creating e-mail addresses and 350+ social
networking sites. The top three
are Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
She also wants parents and
professionals to know that she uses the same curriculum for youth in 3rd
and 4th grade as she does for high school students. It is an indication of how technologically
sophisticated children are at such a young age.
Youth easily defeat age
restrictions on social networking sites and many youth well under the age of 13
(restriction for both Facebook and MySpace) have social networking pages.
Karina showed how easy it is
to use other sites, like school websites and simple white and yellow pages in
connection with a Facebook or MySpace page to track a particular youth. Seeing this makes privacy levels and
being selective about who our online friends a major safety priority.
6 million pictures are
posted on the Facebook everyday and the comment streams are viewable by anyone
who sees that picture. It is
common for these chats to shift from comments about the picture to comments
about everything under the sun. This information is then readily available to the Cyber-bully
or a predator wishing to learn more about a possible target (that might be your
child).
Karina’s Internet Safety
Tips
Keep computer in a BUSY
central location – increase activity is likely to make a youth think twice
about what they are sending or posting and if something is inappropriate you
are more likely to see it quickly.
Establish family rules about
Internet use. Remind everyone that
these rules apply whenever they access Internet anywhere, not just at home.
Set guidelines for the
following:
- What sites can a youth go
on?
- Who can your youth talk
with?
- How long can they be online?
-
Where is it okay to use a
computer?
Keep Internet rules posted
near the computer as a reminder for the entire family.
Discuss the importance of
telling a trusted adult if something ever makes your child feel scared,
uncomfortable, or confused while online.
They often avoid telling a parent for fear of losing their Internet
access privileges.
Discuss how your child can
identify themselves online and what information they can share.
Create a family definition
of who online friends are.
Make sure youth know that
they people you meet online do try to get people to trust them for unsafe
reasons.
Discuss what type of
information that should never be shared with people you have only met online.
Make a plan for what you
should do if someone you meet online asks to meet you or make you feel
uncomfortable in any way.
Finally, youth should never
post a picture online they would not want posted around their entire school for
everyone to see.
**Karina Berzins is available
to bring free Internet presentations to all varieties of organizations and
groups. If you would like
information her contract information, please send us your email and we will be
glad to help.
Online Resources:
www.netsmartz411.org is parents' and guardians' premier, online resource
for answering questions about Internet safety, computers, and the Web.
www.mymobilewatchdog.com is a site for cell phone monitoring.
www.toptenreviews.com will give you information about popular computer
monitoring and filtering software.
www.cybertipline.com or 1-800-843-5678 is a way to file complaints about
Cyberbullying or sexting incidents.
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