Child Protection
Part III
Internet Safety

This is the third article in a four-part series on protecting children from predators. Part I focused on abuse awareness and reporting, Part II on preventing abduction, and Part IV will look at how the Corvallis Police Department responds to a missing child report and the resources it has to resolve such an event.

The Internet
This article is written to help parents guide their children to the positive side of the Internet and to teach parents and children what to do in the event of a negative experience. It is not meant to be comprehensive, rather, to be an overview of safety basics with suggestions for further parental education.

The Internet is a wonderful innovation that provides virtually unlimited communication, entertainment, and access to information of all sorts. Most Internet content is posted for a positive or useful purpose and the great majority of Internet users have safe experiences. Millions of children use the Internet daily for schoolwork, to communicate with family and friends, and for entertainment. This experience is essential to becoming computer literate and will serve them for life. But ensuring that the experience is safe is an ongoing parental responsibility.

The best way for parents to be proactive and protective is to become educated about the fundamentals of computers and the Internet. This includes learning about the dangers that can be encountered. A knowledgeable parent can make informed decisions about establishing family computer use rules and will know how to guide their children to positive sites and away from the negative ones. Equally important, informed parents will know how to monitor their kids' Internet use and will know what to do if their child is harassed or encounters an inappropriate or dangerous site.

Good, non-technical and easy-to-read information on computer and Internet basics can be found in the public library's reference section, in bookstores, and online. Your own children may be good tutors -- and getting them to help you might just provide a great connection for talking about Internet use and family rules. You can also get Internet safety brochures free of charge at the Corvallis Police Department.

Also investigate software that filters or blocks sites that you find inappropriate for your family. You can read about them online or you can ask about them at computer/software stores. In addition, there are services that rate web sites. But it is important to remember that there aren't any software programs that are capable of blocking every site you don't want your children to visit.

Internet Dangers
One way to conceptualize the Internet is to think of it as a community, a huge community that literally includes people from all over the world. And in a community that vast, especially one in which community members can choose to be anonymous, there are people who lurk for purposes of ill intent.

In general, the risks posed by those people can be typed into three categories: posting/publication of inappropriate material, harassment, and physical harm.

For the most part, inappropriate material consists of sexual, pornographic, or violent text and pictures. It also includes racist, sexist, and other bigoted, demeaning, or hateful content. When any of this kind of material is intentionally directed to a person for the purpose of harassment, that act constitutes a federal crime (as opposed to someone entering a site where this information is already posted). And physical harm may result when a person, especially a child, provides personal information or agrees to meet an online "friend" in person.

People who perpetrate crimes against children commonly are very patient and will spend months, sometimes even years, building files on potential victims. They gather seemingly innocent and random tidbits here and a snippet there until they have the all information they need to identify, find, and make contact with the victim.

The anonymity provided by the Internet allows pedophiles -- and others of ill intent -- to pose as someone they are not. It is not unusual for an online predator to post under an assumed name, a picture of someone else, even that of a child, and then befriend potential victims.

Because of anonymity, chat rooms are probably the most dangerous sites and those without moderators have an added layer of danger. This is because it is common for people in chat rooms to form friendships. After a few conversations around a topic of interest a bond of sorts can form. And then as the conversations continue the predator starts to gain the victim's trust and little bits of personal information are given in answer to baited questions.

Online Safety
Teach your children that people on the Internet are not always who they say they are. As a consequence, teach your children to not give to anyone on the phone or the Internet any personal or other kind information that would allow someone to identify, find, or follow them. This includes photographs, name, street address, city of residence, zip code, e-mail address, phone number, age, gender, school, teacher's name, school mascot, name of mom & dad, brothers and sisters. And teach them to never tell anyone that they are home alone or without an adult.

Children should never give any personal information to, send their picture -- or that of other family members -- to, or arrange to meet, an online friend without first involving a parent.

Children commonly believe what they read in a book and this carries to what they see on the Internet and TV. Teach them that not everything they read is true. And make sure that they know they do not have to fill in all the blanks on a form just because they are asked to provide the information. This holds whether the form is on the Internet or elsewhere. It is most important when dealing with profiles for instant messaging and chat rooms.

Teach your children to not respond to e-mail from someone they do not know or to messages that are sexual, violent, hateful, bullying, or in any way make them feel uncomfortable.

If your child receives child pornography or harassing or threatening or hateful messages report it immediately to your Internet provider and to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 or www.missingkids.com/cybertip.

Preventative Measures
Consider placing the computer your children use for Internet access in the family room or other place where you can easily see what sites they are visiting.

Establish clear family Internet use rules for times, sites, and kinds of information that your children can access. One major rule should be no hiding of the contents from you. If your child turns the computer or monitor off when you walk by, be concerned. For younger children put the rules in writing and have them sign it like a contract. This helps them understand the importance. Monitor where on the Internet your children have been and enforce your rules.

Do not allow your children to access, without your permission, sites that charge for services.

If your children go to friends' homes that have Internet access, talk with the other parents about rules in their home.

Conduct a periodic search of your child's name on Google. If your child owns titled property such as real estate, or if your child is an honor student, participates in school activities, is an athlete, or otherwise can be expected to be named in the local newspaper, you should expect to see your child's name come up in a Google search. However, if your child's name appears in an unexpected context, you should check the reason for, and the source of, the citation.

Friends of Corvallis Police thanks Corvallis Police Lt. Jon Keefer for his dedication to child protection and his inspiration for this series of articles.