Parents: know how to protect your kids from online predators

Today, technology is part of our daily lives. The Internet is not only a useful tool in the workplace but also a way of keeping ourselves informed about what’s going on around us. It’s also a tool for socializing, and not exclusively for adults.

Social media websites like Facebook, Twitter and the almost defunct MySpace, let minors keep in contact with their friends or meet kids their own age that share their same interests…the problem is that many times that “kid” they happen upon online is a fully grown individual with the WORST of intentions.

In 2009, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo revealed that Facebook’s data bank identified little more than two thousand individuals with active profiles that had criminal records for sexual offense.

Also, approximately two thousand individuals with profiles on MySpace were registered on New York’s sexual delinquent’s list (UnivisionNoticias.com)

According to Cuomo, large part of these people had profiles on BOTH social media websites. And we’re talking about a study that, like I said before, was published two years ago and based only on New York…what can we expect now in 2011 and taking into consideration the rest of the World?

Recently, Representative José Enrique Meléndez presented a legislative piece that would require that social websites limit the information that minors publish on their profile, if not; these sites could be exposed to a ten thousand dollar fine. However, on a meeting held with Corey Owens, spokesman of Facebook’s  Office of Public Policy, Owens showed some reserves on the project, which  could touch on controversial issues such as liberty of expression and possible violations to interstate commerce, although he assured the legislator that he shared the same concerns about the vulnerability of minors in their data bank. He also confessed that in this day and age there’s no technology that could guarantee the ability to identify the origin of their users 100 percent of the time (CyberNews).

So, while an agreement is reached, how can parents identify a possible sexual predator and protect their kids? www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/parent-guide, here are a few signs your child is at risk "on-line":

According to the FBI’s oficial website:

• He spends too much time online, especially in chat rooms
  
• He’s a minor whose parents are out of the house most of the time
• He goes online to chat with his friends, make new ones and sometimes look for sexually explicit information
• He goes online at night: many predators work during the day and spend their nights looking for victims
• You find porn on your child’s computer
• Your child receives phone calls from people you don’t know or is dialing numbers you don’t know, sometimes long distance numbers
• He receives mail, gifts or packages from someone you don’t know
• He suddenly turns off the computer’s monitor or changes the page when you go in his room
• He distances himself from his family
• He uses someone else’s Internet account

What should you do if you suspect your child is communicating with a sexual predator?

• Consider speaking openly with your child about your suspicions. Talk to him about the dangers
• Check what’s in his computer
• Use ID Caller to determine who’s calling your child
• Monitor his access to all types of electronic communication: chats, IM, e-mail, etc.

If any of the following situations arises, you should immediately contact the authorities:

• Your child, or any member of your household, has received child pornography
• Your child has received sexual advances from someone who knows he is under 18 years of age
• Your child has received sexually explicit images from someone who knows he’s underage

How can you minimize your child’s risk factor?

• Talk to him about sexual victimization and the potential online danger
• Spend time with your child online. Let him show you his favorite sites
• Keep the computer in your house’s common room, NOT in his bedroom
• Use parental controls provided by your Internet service
• Always maintain acces to your child’s account and check his e-mail once in a while

• Teach them:
• to NEVER meet with someone they met online
• to NEVER post his pictures on the Internet or send them to strangers
• to NEVER provide personal information like his name, address, the name of his school or phone number
• to NEVER download pictures from an unknown source (they could be sexually explicit images)
• to NEVER respond to suggestive, obscene or threatening messages
• that what they are told online could or couldn’t be true

Sadly, sexual predators are ALWAYS going to be present. The more tools you give your children to protect themselves, the better.

Remember:

“Better SAFE than SORRY”