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Dark alleys on the Internet

Education key to keeping kids safe from on-line predators

Most parents believe that when their kids are home they are safe. But that is an outdated and even dangerous idea.

Why?

The Internet has entered our homes and brought with it a new set of dangers that parents must guard against.

"I ask parents, ‘Would you let your kid walk down a dark alley in downtown Vancouver by themselves?’" said RCMP Cst. Jennifer Freeman, who talks to parents and kids on Internet safety from her base in Richmond.

Well letting your kids surf the Internet and use chat rooms unsupervised is no less dangerous, she said.

Alarming statistics supports her fears. The Media Awareness Network found recently that half of all kids using the Internet are unsupervised most of the time and that fewer than two out of every 10 parents talk to their kids about what they are doing.

According to the Canada Safety Council more than half of all teens visit private and adult chat rooms. The same proportion of teens report that they have received pornographic spam.

One in five 11-12 year olds reported receiving e-mail messages that have bothered or frightened them. Of those, only 20 per cent told an adult.

Of particular concern to police and parents are on-line predators. Forty-three per cent of teen’s aged 15 to 17 have been asked by someone they have met on the Net to meet in person. Of those, one in five accepted, and of that group, one out of five went alone.

Net contacts can start innocently enough. For example, kids goofing around and excited by the technology can decide to set up their own web pages. Along with some personal information, on goes some family photos, pictures of friends taken at school, and maybe some links to other favourites sites.

"That’s just a white pages for pedophiles," said Freeman referring to this type of website.

Within minutes a predator can use a search engine like Google to find out where the child lives and maybe even decide to target the kid, she said.

Most people are aware of the dangers, but many fail to act on them. That was the case initially for one Whistler mom.

She knew her child and a friend were working on a web page about themselves, and she considers herself well educated on the dangers of the Net. But alarm bells didn’t sound until she realized that the information could easily be used to identify her child.

"After this had been going on for a couple of weeks one of the other moms phoned me and said the school principal had talked to the (kids) at school when they were working on their website," she said. "We both pinched ourselves and thought oh my gosh, we let this happen."

She sat down with her kids and explained her concerns.

"It really, really struck my child," said the mom. "He wanted to get that website down as fast as he could. Every day he would ask if we had received the e-mail back (deleting the site) and he was visibly relieved when it was gone."

She warns other parents to make sure they talk to their kids about the issue and pay attention to what their kids are doing on the Internet. Ignorance of technology isn’t an excuse, said the mom.

"I think parents owe it to themselves to be computer literate," she said. "They have to take the time to figure things out and don’t be afraid of it. It is not an excuse anymore to say I don’t know how.

"The tools are all there in your operating system. It is another parent responsibility that, like it or not, we have been saddled with."

Myrtle Philip School principal Ron Albertin recently brought up Internet safety at a Parent Advisory Council meeting.

"It is not something we can forget about," he said. " It has to be at the forefront all the time."

He admits to being very alarmed when he learned that local kids were setting up there own web pages. And, when he confronted some of the youths, the kids were pretty shocked to learn that their principal was logging on to their sites, he said.

"Some were even taking pictures at school of their friends for their pages," said Albertin, noting that some parents may not even be aware that their kids’ pictures were on the Net.

He is urging all parents to pay attention to what their kids are doing during computer time and educate them about Net safety. Teachers do talk about the issue at school, said Albertin. But the same message needs to be given at home.

And he reminded parents that the Internet is a fabulous tool that kids can enjoy and learn from.

"It just has to be used safely," he said.

There are several great places to get more information on internet safety including:

www.safekids.com/childsafety.htm

• www.cyberangels.org/homefront/index.html

• www.internetsuperheroes.org.

• www.cybertip.ca

• www.bewebaware.ca

• www.safeteens.com

• There is also a cartoon like movie for kids on Internet safety based on the three little pigs and the big bad wolf at

www.kidsdomain.com/down/pc/privacyplayground.html

Freeman believes parents should start talking to kids about Internet safety at the same time they talk to them about stranger danger.

"You need to talk about this," she said, adding that many of the students she talks to are shocked to learn that Net users often lie about who they are.

"I think that education of your kids is key. You have to tell kids to think about who is going to be looking at this information that they are putting up.

"Kids might not always do what parents tell them to, but if they know the facts it might help protect them."

Parents must also stay aware as sometimes kids can get involved with sites that aim to hurt others. Freeman has dealt with several case files were the Internet was used by a youth to extort "protection money" from another youth.

In another case file a group of girls set up a web page just to bully another girl and tell her she was hated.

And, of course, kids need to be protected from predators.

"You have to understand that for a predator this is their job," said Freeman referring to pedophiles’ characteristic grooming and luring of unsuspecting youth on the Internet.

"They do this all day long and they are really good at it. So kids have to be aware of it. You can’t give them enough information about this."