Privacy and Safety Go Hand-in-Hand

By Laurie Myers, President, Community VOICES

Protecting a child’s privacy is in the forefront of the minds of many parents in this digital age.  Children are spending unprecedented hours online doing their homework, listening to music and chatting with friends.  Parents want their children to learn and have fun, but to also be safe.  Unfortunately all of these activities come with the potential exposure to threats by sexual predators.

As president of Community Voices, an organization I helped create in 2004, I work to raise awareness of sexual assault, child sexual assault, internet predators and missing and endangered children.  I’m also mother to three children.  In light of recent news stories about predators and even teens who are sending provocative photos to each other, online child safety is an issue we can never discuss too early or too often.  So here are a few comment sense tips I’d like to share with other parents:

·         Monitor:  Parents must take an active role in knowing what their kids are doing.  Children make mistakes, but parents can help minimize their risks by talking about online safety. 

·         Search:  Know if personal information is out there in cyberspace.    Conduct a simple name and address search using an online search engine.  If your city is on Google “Street View,” see if photos of your home exist.  You can request that Google remove unwanted images.

·         Discuss Privacy:  New technologies make mass distribution of personal information too easy.  More safeguards are needed.  Until they are in place, parents and kids should be proactive about privacy.  Under no circumstances should kids discuss where they live or go to school.   They should never put their real names, home addresses or phone numbers in chat, social networking groups or with new online “friends.”  Also, don’t pass along private information and images of yourself or other people. Too often a picture can be distributed to embarrass people and may have many unforeseen consequences. 

Many of these simple rules should be shared with your children.  It’s also good to focus on a simple rule of thumb: 

·         Privacy and Safety Go Hand-in-Hand.  Is it fun to post a picture of a funny moment at a party?  Sure.  If it can be taken out of context or be used hurt someone, don’t post it.  And don’t repeat embarrassing stories.  And you are being bullied or made to feel uncomfortable, speak up. 

As the use of the Internet and social media continues to grow, privacy and parental monitoring is one of the most important rules we can pass on to our children.  Safety and privacy go hand in hand.

Laurie Myers is President and Founder of Community Voices.  Visit their website by clicking here.  

States Are SPRINGING Into Action
By Stacie Rumenap, Executive Director, Stop Child Predators

It’s only March, but it’s great to see so many states SPRINGING into action with online child safety legislation.  This week alone, lawmakers in Alabama, Maryland, New Jersey, and North Carolina took important steps to help make sure their laws are keeping up with the pace of technology and the threat kids face online. 

Consider New Jersey, for example, where the State Assembly passed eight Internet child safety bills addressing issues like reducing the online anonymity of Megan’s Law registrants, criminalizing the communication of sexual suggestive materials when sent from an adult to a child, stalking, identity theft and more.  Congrats to Attorney General Anne Milgram and the State Assembly for their leadership on these issues.  The measures still need to be considered by the Senate and signed by Gov. Corzine to become law.

These achievements are laudable for sure, but there’s more work to be accomplished.  New Jersey lawmakers failed, for instance, to enact a bill that would have provided penalties for inappropriate communication sent through social networking sites.  They also defeated a cyberbullying bill.  Bullying is a sad fact of life for many children, and unfortunately, bullies have gone high-tech and are now online.  Cyberbullies, as they’re called, hide behind the relative anonymity of the Internet to intimidate, insult and harass others online, without much fear of consequence.  Lawmakers missed out on the opportunity to address these issues, at a time when kids are inflicting such harm on one another in record numbers in chat rooms, social networking sites, virtual worlds and text messages. 

We’ll continue to monitor these states, and more, and work to ensure safeguards are put in place to protect our children from online predators—which can sometimes mean from kids themselves.