To protect your children from on-line predators and Internet choices which could harm their post-secondary and lifelong job prospects, keep pace with their social networking and computer skills, keep webcams and computers out of their bedrooms, and remind them: the Internet is public and it's forever.
These were some of the key messages that parents and community members heard at a well-attended child predator and on-line safety forum presented by the RCMP's Integrated Child Exploitation (ICE) unit at Chatelech Secondary School Nov. 18. The forum was co-ordinated by the Sunshine Coast RCMP and the Halfmoon Bay Community School.
Presenters Const. Gerald Sherk and Sgt. Bev Csikos highlighted the risks children and youth open themselves up to through incautious use of Facebook, other social media and the Internet generally.
They noted that on the widely-used Facebook, a "most friends wins" mentality undermines security, as kids and youth share vast amounts of personal information, photos and videos with perhaps 1,000 "friends" - many of whom they haven't even met - who could be sharing the material with further networks.
The presenters noted that material posted to the Internet is searchable and never disappears.
"You might as well spray paint it on the side of a building," Sherk said.
With employers and universities now apt to search applicants' on-line profile and activity, they noted, young people can harm their future prospects with the material they post.
Furthermore, the presenters said, social media creates opportunities for on-line child predators. These predators might, for example, use posted information as a cheat sheet on a child's interests as they look to cultivate an on-line friendship which could enable a sexual assault. Equally, they could blackmail children and teens who have posted slightly risqué images.
Sherk noted that an image of a girl flashing her bra could open her up to being blackmailed by a predator who demands 'show me more or I'm posting that image on YouTube or another public site.'
The presenters said that it's impossible to tell who you're chatting to on the Internet - only who they claim to be. They added that predators may hang out on websites aimed at even very young children, such as Disney's Club Penguin.
The presenters said that in a sexually open and permissive culture, they also encounter young people who sexually exploit themselves - for example, by posing as adults on Adult-FriendFinder and arranging sexual encounters.
To combat the various risks of the on-line world, the presenters urged parents to get up to speed on social media and all things computer-related, to keep all software updated, to keep computers and webcams out of bedrooms where hormone-crazed young people may create and post compromising images and videos, and to keep all lines of communication open with their children. The warned parents not to forbid children and teens from using social networking sites, which could force their Internet activity underground.
They added that any potential predator activity should be reported to www.cybertip.ca, and that young people, who may associate reporting with the disparaged concept of being a "rat" need to remember that without the reports, predators can't be stopped.
