Child Safety
 | The safety and well-being of our children and students is undoubtedly the main and most
important reason for taking the time to think and talk about this subject. |
| Students in their pre-teens and teen years are most at-risk. Teenage girls are
especially vulnerable. "They are at an age where they know it all and parents
and teachers aren't in touch." (March, 1998) |
| Unless children are adequately taught the potentials risks, and sometimes even if they
are, they don't believe they could be the victim. |
3 Examples of how children can be victimized - taken from the: Federal Bureau of Investigation Educational Web Publication
| A 37-year-old man who claimed he was a child psychologist arranged to meet a
13-year-old boy in Florida for a sexual liaison after the two met in an online chat room.
But the "boy" was a woman who helped the FBI set up a sting that led to the
man's arrest. The man was arrested by FBI Agents upon arriving in Miami. |
| A man serving time for molesting four children was indicted on charges of peddling
child pornography on the Internet using a prison computer. The 57-year-old man was using
the prison computer to obtain and distribute child pornography on the Internet. |
| FBI Agents in Newark, New Jersey arrested a man after he allegedly enticed a
13-year-old girl to mail him videos of herself without ever leaving his home. The girl was
12 when the man first made contact, posing as a 15-year-old pen pal, and exchanging e-mail
on an online service. The girl sent him four video tapes. The man was arrested after the
girl's mother became suspicious of the girl's activities and called the police. |
Safety Tips
My Rules for Online Safety
This excerpt is taken from a brochure written by Lawrence J. Magid,
a syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times, who is author of Cruising
Online: Larry Magid’s Guide to the New Digital Highway (Random House, 1994) and The
Little PC Book (Peachpit Press, 1993).
| I will not give out personal information such as my address, telephone number, parents'
work address/telephone number, or the name and location of my school without my parents'
or teachers' permission. |
| I will tell my parents or teachers right away if I come across any information that
makes me feel uncomfortable. |
| I will never agree to get together with someone I "meet" online without first
checking with my parents. If my parents agree to the meeting, I will be sure that it is in
a public place and bring my mother or father along. |
| I will never send a person my picture or anything else without first checking with my
parents or teachers. |
| I will not respond to any messages that are mean or in any way make me feel
uncomfortable. It is not my fault if I get a message like that. If I do I will tell my
parents or teachers right away so that they can contact the online service. |
| I will talk with my parents and teachers so that we can set up rules for going online.
We will decide upon the time of day that I can be online, the length of time I can be
online, and appropriate areas for me to visit. I will not access other areas or break
these rules without their permission.
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| Consider limiting your children's chat activities to monitored chats
only
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| Require your child to earn his/her Web License at PBS Techknow, or take
the Child Find on-line safety challenge (see Safety Links)
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