I attended a meeting tonight about the danger on the internet for young teens. Are all of you aware of how carefully you should be watching your kids regarding the internet? The presentation was given by an undercover agent who finds predators on the internet.
Thats so weird I just saw an FBI agent talking with the local news today about this. She said there are alot of programs out parents should put on the computer to monitor the kids, also read all their emails. Also to put the computers in a common area such as kitchen or living room. And have all passwords to access internet.
We have had a police officer into our school to talk to our students about the dangers. It truly is a scary thing! One of my students was late for school the other day (came in the afternoon) because her mom let her sleep in as she had been up on MSN until midnight. Who is she talking to at midnight...not many 10 year old girls up then on a school night! I'm very worried about her and have shared my concerns with her and her mother; too bad my concern is not shared.
The presenter, who is an undercover agent who finds these predators on the net,) told how the predators lure these young girls and boys by going into places such as Myspace. They look for certain profiles. He stressed how one should never ever post their pictures over the web or give out personal info. He even went into online America and posed as a 13 year old girl.He went into a chat room and all of the people who addressed him were older MEN. It was very eerie. He had a conversation with an actual man and was invited to use web cam. Well, he clicked onto this other person's web cam and it was OBSCENE! There is software out there to protect your kids so this likely won't even be happening in your household.
MrsC...he told how these kids pretend to be going to bed and after the parents are sleep, they get up and go into these spaces and chat rooms. He said never ever put a computer in a child's room , but if you do, put blockers on them and go in and READ THEIR MAIL. This in one time you don't give them their privacy. That mom you speak of is really stupid. Her daughter could very well be ruined by what she is being subjected to and may be setting up a meeting with a *** offender that her mom is not even aware of.
We are having a meeting with this mom and daughter next week and this is one issue we will definitely address. It is scary how naive the students can be when it comes to the Internet. They are so trusting that they believe what they are told. I am nervous about my daughter being online sometimes--I have told her that as soon as she tries to hide what she is doing, who she is talking to, or when she minimizes her screen when I walk into the living room (where our computer is) she will lose her computer access for a very long time.
This is the reason we don't have internet access at home. What I find as a problem though, is that kids can go to the library, and if parent's gave permission for the child to check out adult materials (and I have seen parents do it for 10 year olds!), they can use the adult computers. Who is monitering that?!
Please check the 'Teacher Time Out' forum. There is currently a post called 'PM me' from a 7th grader. I posted my concerns there. Seems there is no age requirement to post on the forums which I did not realize (not sure how that would be policed anyway) but a 7th grader soliciting PM's on forums is questionable at the least.
czacza - Have you tried clicking on the "report post" in the upper right-hand corner of each post? I believe that alerts one of the AtoZ moderators.
I noticed that 7th. grader as well. I thought she was just posting some student questions, but yes that is probably too young on this forum. We do discuss some adult topics at times. I would also like to comment on something that I talked about before on this forum...posting photos of yourself or your family. Most posted in reply that they doubted anyone could really find them. That is wrong. Predators have ways of looking up information about people if they are interested in finding them. I strongly urge you not to be posting photos of yourself or you children.
I haven't reported the posts although that is a good idea. I did do a 'find all posts by...' for the 7th grade poster and found several threads she has posted on-the advice/insights given in her posts sound like a 7th grader- this seemed to be the only post where PM me was solicited by this poster but it did ring some alarm bells in my head for her safety. For the most part we are all here for professional discourse, venting, letting off steam but I am concerned about the nefarious passer-by to the forums who might be otherwise motivated.
Just so everyone knows, it is illegal for kids under age 13 to post here according to federal law. A 7th grader likely meets the age 13 requirement, but it is not appropriate for a 7th grader to be here conversing with adults and soliciting private contact. Posts like this need to be reported (and not responded to) so it can be handled. Just use the report post link on the post. As for the dangers, there were 2 news stories this week to underscore how serious this is - The man who worked in the homeland security department who THOUGHT he was conversing with a 14 year old girl. It was really someone working undercover. He sent her a pornographic video, had some disgusting conversations with her on the phone, and was arrested when he was waiting for her to get on her webcam. The other story was an 18 or 19 year old who ran a porn site out of his bedroom since age 13 unbeknownst to his mother. When he first posted his profile and photo on the Internet, predators immediately began contacting him and sending him gifts. Eventually, they began offering money for him to take off his shirt in front of his webcam. This progressed until he had a full blown website with members who joined to watch him perform each night. The whole story is very disturbing, but he said this is more widespread than people realize. He testified in front of Congress about this.
Amanda, I attended a meeting last week. The speaker was an undercover agent who does this full time...finding and arresting these people on the internet. It is alarming how wide spread it is. He went into a chat room during the meeting and we were able to view it on a large screen. He posed as his a 13 year old girl and within 10 minutes was invited to use his web cam. He clicked onto this other persons web cam and what we saw was shocking. The problem is everywhere and the targets are mainly girls between 7th. and 9th. grade.Generally, the men who contact these girls email them a picture of either themselves when they were young or a photo of someone else. He then showed a photo of a man who convinced a young girl that it was how he looked and then showed his actual photo...a 55 year old pervert ... scary looking man.
To me, the computer doesn't belong in the child's room at all. If they are using for anything that they don't want their parents to see, then they shouldn't be on it at all. In my opinion many parents are simily using the computer as a babysitter, just as they used to use the tv. As long as the kids are in there room on the computer, they aren't underfoot or causing trouble. They don't seem to realize there is no difference between their child talking to strangers on the computer and them calling strangers up on the phone and talking to them.
Christy, another way this detective put it was, " If a man came to your door and asked if he could talk to your daughter about s-e-x, would you invite him into your home?" That's what parents are doing when they allow their children free access to the internet. He also said the same thing you did about never allowing a child to have their computer in their bedroom. It should be in a common area of the house.
When I moved out, my mom put my computer in my little brothers' room. It really scares me. The nine year old is a horrible speller, and he has ended up on some bad websites when he misspells disney channel, or whatever it is he's looking for.
Even 15+ years ago, before we had Internet access, there was a service I had called Prodigy. You could dial-up and connect with other Prodigy users with "bulletin boards" - A very low tech version of this forum. I remember someone claiming to be a 17 year old contacting me to have computer sex. He sent me a private message describing everything in detail. I was about 14 at the time. I can only imagine how much worse it has gotten now if we could do that type of thing before so much more technology was available. It was really creepy, so I didn't respond and deleted it, but I also didn't tell anyone. You never know what's going on when your kids are on the computer unless you are watching everything. We had our computer in an office.
Scary World My daughter's 6th grade teacher did a unit on internet safety. She had gotten some information and packets for students and families. She told me it was scary speaking with the students about this. She was surprised how many of the students were so unaware about internet safety. But she was even more scared when she spoke with parents (the majority of which said they never check what their child is doing). These kids were giving out personal information such as name, town, birthdate, parents names. Our computer here at home is in the kitchen where we are able to watch everything going on. Or we think we see everything. But we do check the places our kids have been on the net and we have parental controls set that will not allow them to get to certain types of sites. I have had to call parents about questionable emails their children have sent to ours, or about questionable things being talked about on MSN. Most of the parents are receptive to our calls and thank us for watching out for their children. Many of whom are online while mom and dad are at work. Our computer can't be used unless we are home. Wish more of our children's friends parents did the same. It is so scary to think about what could happen.
One of our Child and Youth Workers here at school has booked a police officer to come in to speak to the students from grades 3-8 about Internet safety and "stranger danger". So many kids don't seem to realize that people they "meet" online are strangers.
