NAP- Neighborhood Alliance of Pawtucket

Youth on the Internet Dangers

Aug 19, 2008

For young students, danger lurks on the dark side of the digital age

01:00 AM EST on Saturday, January 21, 2006
BY TOM MOONEY
Journal Staff Writer



SCITUATE -- For generations, young teens have been scribbling down their innermost thoughts and sharing them with friends. But in the Internet age, many are sharing personal information with the world -- whether they realize it or not -- and placing themselves in danger.

That reality had state police Detective Cpl. John F. Killian, who heads the department's Computer Crimes Unit, standing yesterday in front of an auditorium filled with some 300 Scituate Middle School students.

He urged these children of the digital age to buck a growing trend among their peers: posting pictures and information about themselves on social Web sites like myspace.com.

Myspace.com, which calls itself "a place for friends" is chat forum where young people 14 and older socialize online on topics ranging from partying, to friends, to music, to games, to the opposite sex.

"There is a scary side, a dark side, to the Internet," Killian said. "The reality is, you have no idea who's on the other side of the computer."

Sometimes they are predators, he said, hunting for children.

KILLIAN came armed with video of recent news accounts of children who thought their Internet ramblings were harmless communication, or the start of a special friendship, but resulted in sexual assaults and killings.

Cases like the rape of a 14-year-old Maine girl four weeks ago. She met a 21-year-old man on the Internet. They communicated online for three months. They eventually agreed to meet. "He drove her to someone's apartment and raped her," Killian said. "That's true."

In the last several weeks, prompted by national news exposure about the growing popularity of sites like myspace.com, Killian says more schools have been requesting that he come to speak.

Scituate Middle School Principal Lawrence Filippelli said he invited Killian after a disturbing discovery last month.

Some high school students had created a Web site about a substitute teacher. When administrators reviewed the site, they saw links to myspace.com and several chat rooms.

"We started seeing some really risque pictures and accurate information about some of our students," he said. "Some of these kids were listing their home phone numbers, their home address. It's pretty scary stuff.

"You can't imagine the stuff on there. I had one parent literally hanging on to the edge of my desk" as Filippelli showed him the site. "Parents have no clue because these kids are way more advanced [with computers] than their parents are."

The young teens, Filippelli said, "really believe nothing is going to happen to them. They don't understand there are lots of bad people who are looking at what they are posting, and that concerns us."

Middle school students are more in danger of being preyed upon than high school students, Filippelli said, because they spend more time on their computers.

Many high school students drive, have jobs and other extracurricular activities, while middle school students often spend more time at home -- and therefore on their computers, according to Filippelli.

Just as the parent of a high school student worries when a child drives off in the car, Filippelli says, a middle school parent should be concerned about a child on the computer.

"They are driving without supervision, too," he said. "They're just driving another vehicle. They're driving the Internet."

MYSPACE.COM allows visitors to browse chat rooms and blogs and meet "cool new people" like "Rich," who, according to the Web site yesterday, was a 30-year-old man from Vista, Calif.

A Web site picture of "Rich" showed a muscular man standing shirtless in front of a mirror. In a brief description of himself, "Rich" said he worked three jobs, and . . . "I treat girls with respect who deserve it."

The Web site also had links to five of "Rich's friends." Their links sents visitors off to a myriad of other sites. Killian said many of these social sites have age minimums, but there is no way for the sites to verify age.

Many school systems have filters on their computers that block student access to sites such as myspace.com. But of course that doesn't stop children from accessing those sites elsewhere.

Just yesterday, Portsmouth Middle School Principal Stephen Desposito e-mailed a "parental alert" to the parents of his students asking them to access some of the many Web sites like myspace.com to educate themselves.

In a phone interview, Desposito said recent news coverage of Internet dangers spurred him to send out the notice.

Desposito told the parents: "Additional danger lurks in our inability to accurately know who we are talking to when communicating online. . . . The 14-year-old boy from the other side of the country," he said, could be "a sexual predator within driving distance."

Desposito said the topic also arose at a recent PTO meeting. And one parent, who had learned about Killian's recent visit to a Newport school, asked whether he could speak at Portsmouth Middle School. Killian is scheduled to do so.

"I'm trying to be proactive in this area," Desposito said. "This is about education. Parents and kids need this information. Parents may say 'I know where Little Johnny is' if he's upstairs on the computer, but the reality is, a lot of moms and dads don't know what he is doing."

Killian gave the Scituate Middle School students several tips yesterday to stay safe:

Never share vital information such as birthdates or addresses with anyone online.

Sexual predators are patient. Initial contact always appears innocent, and they will take their time developing the trust of their victims.

If someone online pressures you into revealing such information, politely refuse. Then tell your parents and have them contact the police.

Be very wary of anyone who asks where you go to school, the names of your siblings, what your parents do for work or when they are home.

And never -- ever -- meet someone you've met online if your only familiarity with them is through the Internet.

tmooney@projo.com / (401) 277-7359