Online Safety for Kids
By Robert Muskett
School-Based Technology Specialist
Robert E. Lee High School
How can a parent keep their teens safe?
• Talk to them about the dangers online
• Trust that they are making wise decisions
• Install Internet monitoring software
It was on a cold December afternoon about five years ago that I received a panicked email from a parent of a school that I was working for at the time asking for help.
Her high school age daughter had become closed off to her emotionally and shut down all attempts at communication. The more this parent pressed to find out if something was wrong, the more defensive and angry the daughter became. Other concerns were the manner in which her daughter was on the computer in her room late into the night and would quickly exit her email and IM software when a parent entered the room and the fact that her usual friends from school no longer called or stopped by the house.
This parent feared that her daughter had formed an unhealthy addiction to the internet or worse an online relationship with a stranger.
She asked, “What can a Parent do?”
I would encourage parents who are concerned about their teen’s internet activities to take five steps:
- Research real-life cases involving sexual predators stalking teens.
- Share your research with your teen to warn about the dangers.
- Take your teen to one of many websites that offer tutorials for keeping one safe on the internet and in social networking sites.
- Install monitoring software. There are many different types of monitoring programs to purchase but the best are:
- Stealthy. These programs are undetectable by teens.
- Records. Program needs to record websites, emails, IMs, as well as login passwords. This is important if your child disappears.
- Real-time. If your teen is meeting a stranger at the mall, you would like to know before she leaves not after she does not come home.
- Emailed. You do not want to have to login to the program on the computer they use because that would tip them off. Better programs email the parent all the information as the events are taking place
Lee High School PTSA General Membership Meeting
October 20, 2009
*Sexting, by Franconia Police Officers Marc MacDonald & L.A. Wolber
HYPERLINK “http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/police/topics/042109.htm” http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/police/topics/042109.htm
“Sexting” is a media term that comes from the words sex and texting. Sexting is sending text messages or images of a sexual nature via a cell phone. It only takes 1 inappropriate text to be 4 felonies:
1. create/take the picture/text: production of child pornography
2. it’s on your phone: possession of child pornography
3. send it: distribution of child pornography
4. someone receives it: possession of child pornography
It’s a very common problem: up to 50% of teens say they have received or sent inappropriate texts/photos. The HUGE problems come when strangers intercept these pictures and put them on porn websites or when “friends” send them to others, then the victim feels ashamed. A video was shown about a girl who committed suicide after her nude picture was circulated around her hometown.
INFORMATION FOR PARENTS:
*You need to know more about technology (cell phone, websites, AIM, chat, PSP, Youtube, ipods-have internet now, etc) than your child. Use parental controls: If you call your cell phone company, you can request they restrict pictures being sent on texting.
*You need to know the password for your child’s Facebook account, not just to see it as a “friend”.
*You need to keep child’s cell phone with you when they goes to bed. The police said many kids call & text throughout the night, when they are supposed to be sleeping. You having the phone makes sure they get a full night’s rest, plus the kids should know that you are seeing everything they do on their phone. Knowing this might stop them from doing something stupid. It is the parent’s responsibility to know what’s going on.
*Webcams get more kids into trouble. The police advised to NEVER have a computer out of sight of parents (in a bedroom, basement, behind any kind of closed doors).
