How to keep our kids safe
in a potentially unsafe
world.
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People of all ages are:
Posting video
 Building online profiles
 Texting and Instant Messaging
 Creating alter egos in the form of online avatars
 Connecting with people they wouldn’t normally
connect with
 Sending photos
 Broadcasting their location and what they’re doing
to hundreds of people
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Inappropriate conduct.
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Inappropriate contact.
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The online world can feel anonymous. Kids, along with adults,
often forget that we are still accountable for our actions.
Some online people have bad intentions: bullies, predators,
hackers, and scammers.
Inappropriate content.
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We are all fearful of what our children may see online:
pornography, violence, bullying.
With knowledge and communication, we can prevent
some, not all, but some of these things.
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Racism, Prejudice and Hate
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www.aryan-nations.org
www.tightrope.cc/jokes.htm
www.godhatesfags.com/
www.kkk.bz/
www.stormfront.org/forum/
www.freeyourmindproductions.com/
www.resist.com/
Self Injury- promote cutting or self-injury
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www.cuttingclub.com
http://community.livejournal.com/razor_dreams/
http://allphilosophy.com/topic/show/344
www.palace.net
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Eating Disorders- very few of many, promote
eating disorders. Many have created clubs or
online support groups for those with a disorder
can help each other persist in the issue.
http://grotto.projectshapeshift.net/
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpIN31Euuo4
 http://www.proanamia.com/
 http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia
 www.houseofthin.com
 http://board.ringsworld.com/pro~ana.html
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Suicide- Pro-suicide sites. Range from poking
fun, to providing encouragement, to giving
detailed methods for killing oneself.
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http://ashbusstop.org/
http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Death/Suicide/Me
thods
http://listverse.com/health/top-10-ways-tocommit-suicide/
http://tinyurl.com/2k8966
http://www.mouchette.org/suicide/answers.php3?
cat=experience
http://www.noob.us/entertainment/how-tocommit-suicide-like-a-real-man
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Chatroulette
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MySpace- Largest social networking site
Facebook- made up of many networks, each based
around a company, region, or school.
Faceparty- Has an adult section which can only be
accessed with adult verification.
Friendster- Adds the ability to share unlimited
personal files- especially video and photos.
Hi5- Members discover friends, artists and
content. It’s a platform for established artists and
underground talent. Members voice their opinions
and increase the significance of an artist, person, or
a piece of content.
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Piczo- This site uses free form tools which
makes it super easy to have a website up and
running within minutes. It also seems to cater
to children.
Tickle- According to the company, it’s the first
social networking product to deliver deep user
profiles that go beyond basic demographic
data.
Xanga- A community of online diaries and
journals. You can start with your own free
journal, share thoughts with your friends and
meet new friends.
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It’s simple: Kids are revealing to the rest of the world
information that is inappropriate and too personal,
especially information that can make it easy for a
predator to identify, track, and lure.
Teens and tweens are identifying where they go to
school, live, work, hang out and study. They are
taking pictures in their homes and bedrooms in full
view of posters and other personal items- useful
information about interests that can be used for evil
motives.
Some mental health and psychology professionals
wonder “Are they being used by depressed kids to
interact with others and isolating them even further
from the real world?” Are they turning to these as a
way to cope?
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It can be a place where they use self expression, trying
on different identities. At home they may be the prep
while on their network they are gothic (an expression
of mystery or a hint of darkness) or emo (emotionalpunk, goth, or a little of their own personal
additions).
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When people take and send sexually
revealing pictures of themselves or send
sexually explicit messages via text message,
it’s called “sexting.”
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22% of teen girls and 20% of teen boys have sent
nude or semi-nude photos of themselves over the
Internet or their phones.
22% of teens admit that technology makes them
personally more forward and aggressive.
38% of teens say exchanging sexy content makes
dating or hooking up with others more likely.
29% of teens believe those exchanging sexy content
are “expected” to date or hook up.
 (All of the above are from CosmoGirl and the National
Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 2009.)
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In a tech savvy world where things can be
copied, sent, posted, and seen by a large
audience, the content cannot be controlled.
The intention of sending a picture , text, or
email may be a mere token of love. Technology
gives the world the capability of exposing our
child’s most intimate self to those waiting in
the wings.
It’s against the law. Sending nude photos of
minors can be a felony offense. Some states
have begun prosecuting kids for these offenses.
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On February 1, 2010, State Attorney General Greg Abbott
announced adults with nude or semi-nude photographs on
their mobile devices can be investigated and tried on felony
child pornography charges.
Teenagers with photos of other teens aged 18 and under can
be prosecuted and face up to 10 years in prison, Abbott said.
Based in Austin, NTDAH (National Teen Dating Abuse
Helpline) offers troubled teens the only 24-hour help line in
the country where trained teen advocates counsel fellow
teens about digital harassment.
The National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline can be reached at
1-866-331-9474
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Communicating visually with another person
via computer. The term came from chat
systems that evolved from typing text to
incorporating two-way video. The terms video
chat, "video calling," and "videoconferencing"
are used synonymously.
Google Video Chat, Eyeball, iCU2, Webcam
Now, Skype, ooVoo, Vsee, iChat, and TokBox
are a few of the video chatting sites.
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Urban Dictionary definition: Nexting is a technique used to
remove someone from your life in a clean, efficient manner that
causes minimal to no drama.
Chatroulette- a Russian based website that pairs random strangers
from around the world together for webcam-based conversations.
Visitors to the website randomly begin an online chat (video,
audio and text) with another visitor. At any point, either user may
leave the current chat by initiating another random connection.
According to a survey carried out by RJMetrics, approximately 1
in 8 of feeds from Chatroulette involved 'R- rated' content.
The website has encouraged users to be at least 18 years old, and
prohibits pornographic behavior. Users who experience
harassment or witness illegal, immoral, or pornographic activity
may report the offending user. After three users have complained
about the same participant within 5 minutes the user is banned
from the service[3] for 10–40 minutes
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Some kids share music, games, or software
online. Peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing allows
people to share these kinds of files through an
informal network of computers running the
same software. If your kids download
copyrighted material, you could get mired in
legal issues. Sometimes spyware, malware, or
pornography can be hidden in a shared file.
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Safety measures
Install file-sharing software properly. Activate the proper
default settings so that nothing private is shared. By
default, almost all P2P file-sharing applications will share
downloads in your “save” or “download” folder. That’s
why it’s important to set it to not automatically save to
either of these folders. If you don’t set the defaults
properly, other P2P users may access files you never
meant to share, including personal documents on your
hard drive, like your tax returns or other financial
documents.
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Before your kids open or play any downloaded file,
advise them to use security software to scan it. Make sure
the security software is up-to-date and running when the
computer is connected to the internet.
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Remind our kids that online actions stick like glue.
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Explain why it’s a good idea to post only info that they
are comfortable with others seeing.
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There are consequences for words they write and images
they post.
Some of your child’s profile may be seen by a broader
audience than you or they are comfortable with, even if
privacy settings are on. Encourage them to think about
the language they use online, and to think before posting
pictures and videos, or altering photos posted by
someone else. Future employers, college admissions
officers, coaches, teachers, and the police may view posts.
Remind them that once they post info online, it can’t be
taken back.
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Deleting from a site, there is still little control over older
versions that may exist on other people’s computers and
circulate online.
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Use Privacy settings to restrict who can access and
post on your child’s profile.
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Review your child’s friends list.
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You may want to limit your children’s online “friends”
to people they actually know.
Talk to your teens about avoiding sex talk online.
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Some social networking sites, chat rooms, and blogs
have strong privacy setting. Talk to your kids about
these settings, and your expectations.
Research shows that teens who don’t talk about sex with
strangers online are less likely to come in contact with
predators. In fact, researchers have found that predators
usually don’t pose as children or teens, and most teens
who are contacted by adults they don’t know, find it
creepy. Teens should not hesitate to ignore or block
them.
Know what your kids are doing.
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Parental Control Options:
Filtering and Blocking- tools to limit access to
certain sites, words, or images.
 Blocking outgoing content- a software that prevents
kids from sharing personal information online, in
chat rooms, or via email.
 Limiting time- a software that allows you to limit
your kid’s time online and set the time of day they
can access the internet.
 Browsers for kids- these browsers filter words or
images deemed inappropriate for kids.
 Kid- oriented search engines- perform limited
searches or screen search results for sites and
material appropriate for kids.
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Monitoring tools- software that alerts parents to
online activity without blocking access. Some tools
record the addresses of websites a child has visited;
others provide a warning message when a kid visits
certain sites. Monitoring tools can be used with or
without a kid’s knowledge.
As the parent, you have a right to see any personal
information a site has collected about your child. If
you ask to see the information, website operators
will need to make sure you really are the parent or
they may choose to delete the information.
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Start Early if possible.
Create an honest, open environment.
Talk to your children.
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Initiate conversations
Communicate your values.
Be patient.
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Moore, Robert J. (2010-03-16). "Chatroulette Is 89 Percent
Male, 47 Percent American, And 13 Percent Perverts".
TechCrunch. http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/16/
chatroulette-stats-male-perverts/. Retrieved 2010-05-14.
OnGuardOnline.gov. Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About
Being Online. http://onguardonline.gov/
Sabella, Russell A., Ph. D. GuardingKids.com: A Practical
Guide to Keeping Kids Out of High-Tech Trouble.
Minneapolis, MN: Educational Media Corporation, (2008).
"Digital-nation: Life on the Frontier." Frontline. PBS.
WGBH
educational foundation, n.p., 2 Feb. 2010. Public Broadcasting
Station. Web. Transcript. 15 Dec. 2010.
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/ pages/frontline/>.
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Blognbreakfast. "Comtrotting: A Journey
through the History of Communication." 15
Oct. 2010. Wmv file.
Common Sense Media. “Talking About
Sexting.”http://www.commonsensemedia.org
/talking-about-sexting#
Internet Safety Educator. “Social Networking.“
http://internetsafetyadvisor.squarespace.com/
social-networking/
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