Internet Woes: Cops Coach Parkland Parents On Protecting Their Kids

As cyber-related crimes increase in this technology-savvy generation,   talked to the Jaindl Elementary School's Parent Teacher Organization earlier this week on ways to keep children from getting into serious trouble on the Internet.

Berks-Lehigh Police Chief Michael Weiser told parents that might be quite a feat, considering  that everything from cell phones to video gaming devices has Internet connectivity.

“Nothing is private on the Internet,” Weiser said. “Predators will prey upon your son or daughter. Nothing is sacred. We, the parents, have to be responsible. Every one of these laptops, cell phones, iPads and gaming devices have parental security devices, but you’ve got to know how to use them.”

Weiser pointed out sobering stats to the PTO group, including:

-- 14 percent of teenagers will meet face-to-face with people they meet online.

-- One in seven youths will receive unwanted sexual solicitations online.

-- 32 percent have been harassed or cyber-bullied online.

“That’s a crime,” Weiser said, of the harassment and cyber-bullying. “We teach cyber-bullying safety in our D.A.R.E. program and ask the kids to talk to their parents about that.”

Detective Peter Nickischer noted many students and parents don’t know how to handle cyber-bullying and respond inappropriately.

“Common sense flies out the window,” he said. “I’ve had parents of kids that were cyber-bullied say they were going to kill someone in front of me, a police officer, because they were so enraged.”

Nickischer informed parents not to respond to harassing messages. Instead, parents should save those messages, turn off the computer and call police.

“At that point, that computer is a crime scene,” he said.

Weiser pointed out that the widespread use of Facebook is problematic, noting 82 percent of all teens use it, 29 percent include their last name and 49 percent post the name of their school.

“Right there, a predator has everything they need,” Weiser said.

Sexting, a term for the use of sending lewd texts and nude photos, has boomed in recent years, according to Nickischer, who said 20 percent of teenagers have posted a nude or semi-nude photo of themselves online.

“It’s a serious problem,” he said. “Once a photo like that goes up on the Internet, they don’t go away, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. I’ve heard horror story after horror story about nude photos on the Internet.”

Nickischer cited several examples of teenage girls’ photos circulating on the Internet years after they were taken. He cited other examples of ex-boyfriends “getting back” at girls by posting such photos.

“Forwarding such sexual material (on the Internet) is a crime,” he said, noting that detectives and officers have spent increasing amounts of time investigating such complaints.

Weiser told urged parents to get proactive in monitoring their children's Internet time in the following ways:

-- Set specific times on your children’s computer use.

-- Prevent children from playing games you don’t want them to play.

-- Set limits for how your children use the web, in part by restricting sites they can visit.

-- Prevent children from running the software programs you don’t want them to run.

-- Monitor the sites your children visit.

"We worry about the home computer, but everything connects to the Internet," Weiser reminded parents.