Vancouver-based speaker Jesse Miller came to the Coast last week with pictures, phone numbers and addresses of local kids found on the Internet in an effort to prove a point - many children are sharing more than they realize on-line.
"Today, you guys, I walked into your community with names, family photos, all sorts of things, all because I Googled Halfmoon Bay and the word Facebook. Just a simple search, and I found people in this building," he told a crowd of parents gathered at Halfmoon Bay Elementary School Feb. 23.
Miller is a speaker with Mediated Reality, a group dedicated to social media education and awareness, and he was asked to hold a presentation for parents by the Halfmoon Bay Parents Advisory Committee.
About 40 adults came out to the evening talk, which complemented the daytime session Miller had with some students at the school.
"Today we had kids in Grade 6 and 7 telling us that they had about 250 friends on Facebook," Miller said, underscoring the need to limit friendships to "actual friends" on Facebook to keep information more secure.
But just limiting friendships on Facebook isn't enough, as Miller said students had confessed to talking to strangers while playing video games.
"Kids even told me that they have their Facebook accounts connected to that headset so when they're playing Xbox or Playstation those strangers that they're talking to can cross reference and see who they are," he said.
In an effort to show how dangerous simply posting pictures on-line is, Miller had one woman in the audience go into her iPhone picture file. There he showed how each photo is linked to a GPS location of where it was taken. That location can be found on-line through the information embedded in the photograph.
"All these phones do this. They collect what's called metadata. The metadata makes up the photo," Miller said. "Kids, for some reason, they take pictures of themselves in the bathroom mirror and then they put that on the Internet, which means that the GPS location of your home and your child in the mirror is out there on the Net."
The majority of parents in attendance had no idea about the metadata linked to photos taken on cell phones and Miller encouraged them to investigate their phone features further.
"Don't just push the buttons, learn about it, learn what it can do," he said.
In an effort to educate parents further, Miller talked about popular chat network called chatroulette.com. The website links people from around the world randomly for video chats. Miller said his time on the site yielded some disturbing results.
"I spent 20 hours on this website, four hours each day for five days straight, different times to base out different time zones. One in four was a naked man masturbating," Miller said to gasps of shock from parents at the meeting. "When I asked kids the same question, 'who's been on chatroulette.com' they burst out in laughter because they've all been there."
He noted parents may think their children are safe on-line because they use fake names or give out false information, but clearly that's not enough.
To combat the problem, Miller urged parents to talk openly with their children about the dangers on-line and set up realistic boundaries and rules for use of any electronic device.
"Communication at this point is the biggest thing you have. Talk to your kids about what your own values are," he said.
Other tips to stay safe on-line include not posting anything that might embarrass you later, as screen shots of information can stay on Google long after a Facebook page is deleted, and not giving out excessive personal information.
Miller also suggests that children who see any inappropriate messages or content report it to an adult as soon as possible.
Parents can send that tip to www.cybertip.ca for further action if it's warranted or contact the RCMP.
For more information about Miller and MediatedReality, go to www.mediatedreality.com.
