Keeping kids i-SAFE
By JARED PUTNAM Union Sentinel Editor

Sentinel photo/Jared Putnam UCMS teacher Bob Williams offers tips on internet safety at Tuesday's i-SAFE Parent Night.

In recent months, the television news program Dateline has broadcast its popular "To Catch a Predator" series, which focuses on the growing problem of adults using the internet to solicit children for sex. While the show attempts to catch these predators in the act, educating parents and children about proper internet safety is still the first line of defense. To that end, Union County Middle School has partnered with i- SAFE, a leader in internet safety education, in order to teach parents and students how to avoid internet predators and remain safe on the world wide web.

"How much do we really know about where our children go and what they do when they are on the internet," volunteer parent Melissa Wallace asked the audience during i- SAFE Parent Night at Union County Middle School.

Founded in 1998, i-SAFE is available in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Department of Defense schools located across the world. i-SAFE is a non-profit foundation whose mission is to educate and empower youth to make their Internet experiences safe and responsible. The goal is to educate students on how to avoid dangerous, inappropriate, or unlawful online behavior. i- SAFE accomplishes this through dynamic K-12 curriculum and community outreach programs to parents, law enforcement, and community leaders.

Wallace said that it is important to think about what you have discussed with your children regarding their internet activity, including topics such as sharing personal information online, conducting financial transactions online, meeting new people online, protecting your computer from harmful programs, appropriate and inappropriate places to visit, and online manners.

"Do we know without a doubt that our children are fully equipped with the knowledge they need to recognize what is appropriate and what is not appropriate when it comes to their communication on the internet," Wallace asked. She acknowledged that while the internet is an amazing tool, dangers lurk in cyberspace. While certain software can help block offensive material, Wallace pointed out that tech savvy youngsters often know how to bypass these safety measures. It is not a failsafe, as it can allow some inappropriate stuff though while accidentally blocking some appropriate things.

Wallace introduced featured speaker Bob Williams, a teacher at Union County Middle School who has three children of his own in the school system. "Mr. Williams has been instrumental in bringing this much needed i- SAFE program into the school for our parents and the community, and is working to incorporate the curriculum to each grade appropriate level for our students," Wallace said.

Williams explained that the i-SAFE curriculum is available for students in K-12 and is free. He became certified in the i- SAFE program through online courses consisting mostly of videos. "For me to know about this is important, but for all parents to know is just as important," Williams said. He explained that the course can be very valuable for educating parents in particular, as one of the biggest issues with keeping children safe online is the fact that many parents are often hesitant to discuss the internet with their children due to a lack of understanding about.

But he offered a practical analogy for giving a child free roam in cyberspace."How many of you would just tell your children to jump in the car and take off," Williams asked. He said that while most people would laugh at the idea of allowing a child to do that, many parents essentially do allow their children to get on the internet and go without any guidance or teaching.

Williams said that another hurdle to overcome is the fact that students are often hesitant to have their parents get involved in a program such as i-SAFE, out of fear that their computer privileges may be overly restricted or taken away completely. "That is not our goal," Williams said, asking the audience not to go overboard in the process. He reiterated that the major goal of the i-SAFE program is simply to train parents in how to deal with their children regarding the internet.

Even in families where parents do believe they have firmly established rules regarding the internet, the message does not always get across to children. One i-SAFE survey found that 92 percent of parents said they have established rules for internet use in their home, yet only 60 percent of the kids say they have internet rules at home. That disconnect means that more than one in three children do not believe that there are internet rules in their home, leaving them even more vulnerable to potential predators.

In regards to the process in which an internet predator selects a victim, Williams said that it often begins with loneliness. As children who are entering their teens years are often exploring who they are and are searching for someone who they feel understands them, they become even more vulnerable to an internet predator. "If you don't talk to your kids, someone will," Williams said. "Especially if they have an internet connection."

Once a predator begins talking to a victim, they can develop trust by exploiting conflicts between children and their parents, classmates, or other relationships. As the relationship progresses, it often moves from a chatroom to instant messenger and email. At this point the predator may begin to send inappropriate photos to the child. While it may be shocking at first, as the interaction continues the child can become desensitized to it. If the predator can successfully entice the child into sending some compromising photo of themself, then they can use it to basically blackmail them into doing what they want. The ultimate goal is to bring about a face-to-face meeting.

Surprisingly enough, one i- SAFE survey found that students as young as 3rd grade visited chatrooms. However, numbers were the highest in the middle school grades, where students were close to, but not yet at driving age. Williams said that in polling his own 8th grade classes at UCMS, he found that more than one third of them spent between 6-12 hours per week on the internet. While fewer of his 6th and 7th graders spent that much time on the internet, Williams said that some of his 6th grade students acknowledged having accounts on Myspace, a popular virtual community that allows users to create profiles and network with other people on the internet.

Myspace requires that users be at least 14-years-old, but has no means of verifying a person's age. When Williams asked his 6th graders with accounts how they obtained their account, they only grinned, reaffirming what he already knew, that all they had to do was lie about their age. When he asked them how they knew who they were talking to or that they could be safe, they replied that Myspace only allows them to talk to other children between the ages of 14-16. Williams then posed the obvious question, that if they could lie about their age and get away with it, what would stop an adult from lying about their age to pose as 14-year-old as well? He said that they seemed as though they had never even considered that possibility.

This innocent view of the world is a reminder of how naive a child can be, and how important of a role parents play in educating their children about the dangers on the internet.

For more information about i-SAFE, log on to www.isafe.org or for more details on becoming involved in the local partnership with i-SAFE, contact Bob Williams at the Union County Middle School.