Parents get tips for protecting kids from the cyber-world

Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008

On last Wednesday evening at an "Internet Safety Night" held at Calvert High School, parents wanted to find out either how to monitor it or stop it entirely.

"When kids get on the Internet, they have no idea who's on the other end talking," said Cpl. Glen Libby of the Calvert County Sheriff's Office.

Libby, who gave a presentation on Internet dangers, urged parents to find a way of checking what Web sites their children are looking at and suggested they set up some kind of archiving system on their home computers.

One of the most prominent dangers online, according to Libby, is sexual predators.

"Early to middle teens fall in love with the [sexual] offender because they listen to them … these kids are online for hours at a time, saying things they probably shouldn't be," Libby said.

He indicated that the predators make an impact on youth because they usually have above average intelligence and are therefore able to spot weaknesses and low self-esteem.

However, Libby said, online predators tend to have one goal.

"They want a face-to-face meeting," Libby said.

To keep this from happening, Libby said parents need to make sure their children are not sending pictures of themselves, or giving out any type of identifying information, such as cell phone numbers or the name of their school.

These kinds of personal details, Assistant State's Attorney Kathryn Marsh said in a presentation about social networking Web sites, are easily available on sites like MySpace and Facebook. The latter, however, "is much more advanced than MySpace on protection … the search is only as good as the information one puts on there," Marsh said of Facebook, which is more network-specific in terms of who a person can search for.

MySpace, Marsh said, has no way of preventing children from lying about their age, which allows them to become searchable. She displayed this by showing the MySpace page of a 13-year-old boy who registered as a 21-year-old.

Marsh also displayed several "suggestive" pictures that teens put on their MySpace pages without setting their profiles to "private."

"When they're trying to be cool, they're trying to be sexy," Marsh said. "This girl is never getting this picture back; it's in cyberspace forever now."

Marsh told the parents at the presentation that to find their child's MySpace profile, they should enter his or her e-mail address into the Web site's search box, as several kids have numerous accounts for which they might be using false names or ages.

"We're not saying your kid shouldn't have Facebook or MySpace … they can be great social networking. Your job is to make sure their [accounts] are private, and that you know who their [online] friends are," Marsh said.

Libby also said that if parents are suspicious of anything they see their kids doing online, "it's always OK to tell a trusted adult or law enforcement, and be wrong."

Gangs on the Internet are also a problem, said Detective Chris Parsons of Southern Maryland Intelligence Center.

Parsons told the audience to check for these when monitoring their child's Internet activity, as gangs go online to "promote their gang, recruit new members or threaten other gangs."

Lucy Tonacci, whose daughter is a sophomore at Calvert High School, said that while she has not experienced the issues that were spoken of at the seminar, she intends to keep her eyes open.

"As a parent, as a teacher, I want the best for my child. I want my child to be safe, and it's amazing what information is out there," Tonacci said.

The "Internet Safety Parent Night" was held by Calvert County public schools, the Calvert County State's Attorney's office, the Calvert County Sheriff's Office and the Maryland State Police.

It was requested that children not be brought to the event.

One of the event's planners, Crystal Hill, said that two more Internet safety nights are scheduled for after the holidays. Hill, who is a media specialist with Southern Middle School, said they will be held at Patuxent and Huntingtown high schools.

"We're really trying to target any parent who has a school-aged child with computer access," said Hill, who added, "It can be scary."

lbuck@somdnews.com