As child advocacy group and SIP partner InstantAmber recently pointed out to its readers, June is “National Internet Safety Month” and a good time for organizations, educators, law enforcement, civic leaders, parents and others to increase awareness of safe online practices. National Internet Safety Month is a month dedicated to promoting best practices on the Internet, and to ensuring that everyone who utilizes the Internet understands the dangers posed by the technology and uses the Internet as safely as possible. For our part, SIP launched a safety awareness campaign this summer to help parents, teachers and children learn how to stay safe in today’s online world. We’re taking this message to schools in the coming weeks, and appreciate the support of state attorneys general and other lawmakers, law enforcement, and community groups that are helping us teach such programs to parents and students alike. Read InstantAmber’s latest news article to learn more about their efforts to encourage safe online practices.
Summer is an exciting time for most kids. School’s out, and the warm weather allows for lots of outdoor play. But these days, too often kids don’t spend their new-found free time playing outside. Instead, they’re locked indoors, held captive by the all-empowering computer monitor.
And it can be more difficult to supervise a child’s computer usage than a game of freeze tag…For that reason, it’s imperative our kids become well-versed in staying safe online, and parents and educators have the skills they need to effectively protect children from the minefield of threats to their online safety.
Stop Internet Predators, a project of Stop Child Predators, will kickoff Summer Safety week on Monday May 18th. Summer Safety Week will show kids how they can safely navigate the Internet, and help teach parents what they can do to make sure their kids are making responsible decisions online (and maybe even have fun doing it).
Florida Activities:
To kick off Summer Safety Awareness Week in Florida, Stop Internet Predators and Florida state Attorney General Bill McCollum’s CyberCrime Unit announced a partnership to conduct a summer safety awareness campaign. The two organizations and the Unit will work together on statewide Internet safety presentations for local PTAs and other interested groups throughout the summer months.”
The North Carolina Department of Justice will give a presentation designed to help parents and children understand online safety issues and provide practical information to assist them in keeping young people safe on the Internet.
Caroline Farmer, Deputy Director of North Carolina Department of Justice will discuss identity theft and consumer protection issues related to the Internet and Lindsay Deree, Special Counsel will then speak about the most prevalent risks of the Internet to minors (solicitation, exposure, and threats/harassment) and what adults can do to keep minors safe while they use the Internet
An interactive video with helpful tips for staying safe will also be shown after the presentations. Upon completion of the video, parents and children will have the opportunity to look at the materials and to interact one-on-one with the speakers.
TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2009
Event: Child Internet Safety Awareness Week Press Conference
This will be the kick-off press conference for the Child Internet Safety Week. The North Carolina Lieutenant Governor will discuss efforts in the North Carolina General Assembly and Attorney General’s office to protect children from online predators and prevent children from being taken advantage of on the Internet.
In an effort to recognize key policy makers and community leaders across America, Stop Internet Predators will award individuals who work to combat the online sexual exploitation of our nation’s children. Their work is especially crucial in an ever evolving environment where new technologies are created daily.
The Champion of Online Safety Award will be presented during a press conference on Tuesday, May 12th at 4:30 pm in the Pavilion Ballroom of the Ritz Carlton at Ten Avenue of the Arts in Philadelphia. The event will be streamed live to www.stopinternetpredators.org. You can view the stream below.
The award will be presented by Stacie Rumenap, Executive Director of Stop Internet Predators. Each person receiving an award will be given the opportunity to speak.
Stop Internet Predators has a proven track record of working with lawmakers, parents, teachers, consumers, and children to educate them about the dangers of many new online technologies that predators use to exploit children. With new technologies emerging all the time, this is an especially daunting task.
The devastating consequences of criminal exploitation of technology can often strike very close to home. One such example is the tragedy surrounding the alleged predator being referred to in the media as “the Craigslist Killer.” For every story deemed newsworthy there are countless other’s that the general public never hears about.
The host of available online tools and applications can be very useful to consumers as they provide a variety of services and benefits often at no cost to the user. Unfortunately criminals are lining up to take advantage of these technologies and the people who use them—most concernedly, our children. It’s time for companies to step up to the plate and provide users with the proper safeguards, and take preventative measures to reduce the risk that criminals rely on.
As schools close their doors for the summer, many children head off to camp or spend their days at community swimming pools. But with their days often wide-open, many kids will also have more time to spend on the family computer, often unsupervised.
While parents, of course, need to take an active role in keeping their children safe online year round, the summer is a good time to highlight ways to do just that.Which is why we created Summer Safety Week, May 18th – 24th, and will meet with state officials and child advocates to educate parents and children about the potential danger of newer technologies, like social networking sites, pdas and mapping systems (think Facebook and Street View).Internet predators, sadly, can use sites like these to take advantage of unsuspecting children.
More details on our Summer Safety awareness campaign will be available in the coming weeks.If you would like to contact us or receive emails about Stop Internet Predators click here.
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 even share nude photos of classmates, without much fear of consequence.Technology makes it easier to do and say thing we might not do in person, which is why cases of cyber-harassment are at an all time high.Experts who study the issue say this modern incarnation of bullying can be more damaging to victims than traditional tactics like fist fights and classroom taunts.
But parents and educators can fight back by following five simple rules:
Teach teens to respect one another online and abide by good behavior.The web is a lot more public and permanent than it seems.
Remind teens they can come to you when something makes them feel uncomfortable without fear of losing their Internet privileges.
Place the family computer in a common place in your house and use family safety software so you can restrict websites and monitor contacts.
Encourage teens to never physically meet with anyone they have only become “friends” with online.
Ensure teens know not to share personal information online, including their address, phone number, etc.
Remember, the majority of teens have a cell phone and constant access to the Internet.Help them safeguard their reputations and emotional maturity, something that will stay with them the rest of their lives.
On August 31, 1987, my eight year old brother was kidnapped and murdered by a repeat violent sexual offender. Ryan was taken right from our backyard. What my family and I faced that summer of 1987 was horrific to say the least, but we have worked very hard to ensure that Ryan’s death was not in vain and that we hold child predators accountable for their crimes.
Today, with emerging technology, we are seeing a different kind of predator. Predators now have different avenues to offend against our children. Technology has given predators the ability to lure our children, all the while keeping their true identities a secret from their potential victim. As we have seen, many of these cases have tragic outcomes and leave families and communities devastated. That is why Ryan United stands with Stop Internet Predators to ensure that there are programs in place to protect children, families and communities against these horrific crimes. It is vital that we recognize the potential dangers that can happen when our children are exposed to new technologies. It is vital that we create education programs that ensure that people understand these potential dangers and know what to do if they are ever faced with this unthinkable circumstance.
Technology is a must in our society; we all rely on it for our day-to –day activities. But while the majority of technology is used for good, it is vital that we understand and stand together against the potential dangers that it poses to our children and communities.
When a Street View camera crew drove through a town in Broughton in Cambridgeshire, England, residents“welcomed” the vehicle by forming a human barrier across the road preventing the camera crew from taking photos of the neighborhood’s houses.Residents say they’re concerned about their privacy, rightfully so, and called the new technology an “invitation for burglars to strike.”
The Street View mapping application captures photographs of every day life, from neighborhood streets to the people who live there.And the people who live there say the application captures too much.For example, a picture in Birmingham shows a guy urinating in public.More revealing still, is the photograph of a naked toddler in a North London park. In another example, a man is photographed walking into a sex shop in Amsterdam.
While Google has promised to blur the images of anyone caught on film outside their homes, residents have a right to be angry.After all, Google didn’t ask permission to take pictures, and in a potential worse-case situation, children’s safety is being risked by featuring their photos.
Just another example showing the importance of safeguarding new technologies before they come into our neighborhoods.
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.
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.
