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Parent, child communication key to avoiding Internet dangers
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By Jeff Haldiman
News Tribune
In an age where kids can communicate with anyone at anytime, anywhere in the world, the most important communication they can have is with their parents in their own home.
That seemed to be the main emphasis during the national Internet Safety Night, hosted Tuesday by the Missouri Research and Education Network, also known as MOREnet.
Around 60 remote sites in Missouri and six other states were involved in this event, which originated in Columbia through a videoconference. Parents could also watch online from their homes.
Thirty-five parents, kids and school officials watched from Thomas Jefferson Middle School.
Debbie Hughes, director of technology for Jefferson City Public Schools and herself a parent of a teenager, told the group parents shouldn't be scared into cutting their Internet connections, but that they need to be aware of dangers kids can find online.
“We teach our kids not to talk to strangers, but now with the Internet, you don't know who the strangers are anymore,” she said.
State Senator John Loudon, R- Ballwin, helped craft legislation against cyber predators and was part of the panel in Columbia. He said lawmakers can only do so much, so parents need to be involved in their kids' lives.
“I've found that even the most innocuous sites, with words like dolls or angels, can lure kids into them,” he said. “We've recently found the Internet is not the No. 1 way people are downloading porn. They're getting it off their iPods, PlayStation games and even their cell phones.”
John Wood, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said one in seven children is sexually solicited by an adult each year, but only one in four children will report the incident to an adult.
“The problem is a lack of understanding by children of what the threat really is,” said Chris Pickering, chief investigator in the Missouri Attorney General's Office and a parent of four.
“They don't perceive a threat because they are in their homes and parents also don't believe the threat is real for that same reason. If you have the right profile, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. You will be hit on.”
Pickering urged parents to educate themselves about the Internet and Hughes said parents should learn Internet message language, even if it means asking their kids.
Law enforcement officials also told the crowd that they're seeing more cases where predators convince kids to take suggestive pictures of themselves and send them via cell phone.
Loudon said one way for parents to check to see if this is happening is to examine phone bills, to see if calls have been billed for numbers they know they didn't dial.
“If it's your name on the bill, you could be looking at criminal charges related to distributing child porn,” Loudon said.
Hughes said the Jefferson City district does have filtering software to protect against pornography and to block social networks like MySpace, but added that no filter is 100 percent guaranteed. Hughes said the district expects teachers and staff to monitor computers so kids don't have access to these sites.
“We get the repercussions at school from the online chats at home,” she said.
That seemed to be the main emphasis during the national Internet Safety Night, hosted Tuesday by the Missouri Research and Education Network, also known as MOREnet.
Around 60 remote sites in Missouri and six other states were involved in this event, which originated in Columbia through a videoconference. Parents could also watch online from their homes.
Thirty-five parents, kids and school officials watched from Thomas Jefferson Middle School.
Debbie Hughes, director of technology for Jefferson City Public Schools and herself a parent of a teenager, told the group parents shouldn't be scared into cutting their Internet connections, but that they need to be aware of dangers kids can find online.
“We teach our kids not to talk to strangers, but now with the Internet, you don't know who the strangers are anymore,” she said.
State Senator John Loudon, R- Ballwin, helped craft legislation against cyber predators and was part of the panel in Columbia. He said lawmakers can only do so much, so parents need to be involved in their kids' lives.
“I've found that even the most innocuous sites, with words like dolls or angels, can lure kids into them,” he said. “We've recently found the Internet is not the No. 1 way people are downloading porn. They're getting it off their iPods, PlayStation games and even their cell phones.”
John Wood, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said one in seven children is sexually solicited by an adult each year, but only one in four children will report the incident to an adult.
“The problem is a lack of understanding by children of what the threat really is,” said Chris Pickering, chief investigator in the Missouri Attorney General's Office and a parent of four.
“They don't perceive a threat because they are in their homes and parents also don't believe the threat is real for that same reason. If you have the right profile, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. You will be hit on.”
Pickering urged parents to educate themselves about the Internet and Hughes said parents should learn Internet message language, even if it means asking their kids.
Law enforcement officials also told the crowd that they're seeing more cases where predators convince kids to take suggestive pictures of themselves and send them via cell phone.
Loudon said one way for parents to check to see if this is happening is to examine phone bills, to see if calls have been billed for numbers they know they didn't dial.
“If it's your name on the bill, you could be looking at criminal charges related to distributing child porn,” Loudon said.
Hughes said the Jefferson City district does have filtering software to protect against pornography and to block social networks like MySpace, but added that no filter is 100 percent guaranteed. Hughes said the district expects teachers and staff to monitor computers so kids don't have access to these sites.
“We get the repercussions at school from the online chats at home,” she said.
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