STRANGER DANGER

One of the most growing concerns parents have today is Internet predators and keeping their children safe while they are online. We all teach our children "not to talk to strangers, accept gifts from strangers, or get in a car with strangers." It's a skill that is easy for a child to use when they are in a face-to-face situation. They know the person is a stranger because their eyes and ears tell them that he/she is. It's much harder to tell who a person is online because they can say they are anyone. Anyone can post a picture they grabbed from anywhere on the Internet and become that person.

Last spring, we interviewed several groups of students from HCPS middle and high schools. They shared with us about Internet Safety. Here's what we found:

1. The students knew not to post personal information online. They knew all the right answers to the questions we asked them. They heard the message we have been trying to send on being safe on the Internet. Yet in most cases, they had either posted things online they knew they shouldn't have or knew many friends who had done the same.
2. The students knew not to chat with people they didn't know but felt there was no harm in a casual chat with a stranger. They knew how to delete people from their buddy list or social networking accounts if they were strangers or cyberbullies. They knew that they should tell an adult if someone was bullying them online.
3. SInce they could drive, older teens preferred visiting their friends in person as opposed to spending hours on social networking sites. They felt the sites caused too much drama. Younger teens loved social networking web sites. Older teens still enjoyed it but it did not consume their lives as it had when they were younger.
4. ALL STUDENTS KNEW FRIENDS WHO HAD GONE TO MEET A STRANGER THEY HAD MET ONLINE, FACE-T0-FACE. Parry Aftab, executive director for wiredsafety.org, in her testimony to congress said, " In each and every case when children encounter Internet sexual predators offline (in person), they go willingly to the meeting. They may think the person is a cute fourteen year old boy or girl, but they know they are meeting someone they don't know in real life. That means we can prevent 100% of these crimes. Merely teach our children not to meet strangers offline. If they are set on meeting that person anyway, go with them. That way, if the person turns out to be a cute fourteen year old, you are the hero. And if they aren't, you're an even bigger hero." PLEASE TALK WITH YOUR CHILDREN ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING SAFE WHEN TALKING WITH OR MEETING STRANGERS THEY HAVE MET ONLINE.
5. Students know that it is easy to say things to others online that they would not say to that person's face. Most of them have had experiences with people being unkind, saying things about them that were untrue, and starting online rumors. They know what to do if that happens- print a copy of the chat and let a parent, teacher, or trusted adult know. They also know to block those people from their IM account and to keep their passwords secure. If people write mean things in their MySpace accounts, they print a copy and delete them as friends.