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Parents, students learn dangers associated with Internet surfing
By John J. Hopkins
Parents and students who attended a 90-minute lecture Monday from the FBI on Internet safety learned not only some of the methods that child predators use to lure their targets, but also steps that can be taken to lessen the chance that they will be victimized.
Holly Hubert, a supervisory special agent with the FBI's Buffalo Cyber Task Force, led the presentation at Cheektowaga Central High School, attended by nearly 125 persons.
Hubert, a Cheektowaga Central graduate, also cleared up common mis-perceptions about child predators. The idea that the predators are lonely white men between 20-45 years old with no social connections is not accurate.
"Take that and throw it out the window," Hubert said. "They range from neurosurgeons to the woefully unemployed."
Online predators have many methods at their disposal with which to reach children. Among the most popular are Internet news groups and Instant Messenger services, the latter of which Hubert called the "number one" danger.
Hubert said that in her discussions she has found that virtually 100 percent of all high school and middle school students use a form of instant messaging. A discussion she had last year with second graders in Williamsville indicated that 20 percent of the children have used instant messaging.
Internet news groups are discussion forums where people talk about various topics, generally indicated by the name of the news group. There are no restrictions on who may enter these forums.
Persons with online screen names that sound promiscuous are opening themselves to trouble.
"If their fingers are on the key- board, they're in the danger zone," Hubert said. "They need to be educated and you need to be educated on what they're doing so you can properly supervise them."
Hubert said that school administrators do a commendable job restricting Internet access from school equipment. However, many students can still reach the Net during school hours through the use of their cellular phones and text messaging.
If parents think their children are safe from predators when they use peer-to-peer file sharing networks such as Napster, Kazaa and Limewire, they should think again.
Hubert noted that a person downloading music files of the rock band 10 Years could be in for a surprise.
Since the file sharing programs are accessible by anyone, those who trade child pornography also use the systems.
A search including "10 years" will produce any file including this phrase. Therefore, a person who wants to download songs by 10 Years could inadvertently download pornographic images involving 10-yearolds.
According to Hubert, one teenager who was arrested for possession of child pornography began his collection through a similar scenario.
"This young man, through his constant viewing, developed an immunity to it," Hubert said. "He began to want weirder and younger, weirder and younger."
An East Aurora man arrested on Halloween last year was caught after he was found using a file sharer to exchange child pornography. During interviews, the FBI learned that the man had been molesting a young man for six years, unbeknownst to the victim's mother.
"The extra-sick part about this," Hubert continued, "was this guy was a home health care worker."
Hubert emphasized that a child molester can be anyone, including respected members of the community. She urged parents to keep an open dialogue with their children and take anything that they say seriously.
Sometimes children are afraid to talk because they think nobody will believe them. Hubert used a recent discussion with a victim, now in his 30s, as an example.
As a 10-year-old, the man was molested by his soccer coach. The molestations continued until he was 16, since the coach told the child not to tell his parents because they wouldn't believe him.
"He never talked about it," Hubert said. "People may ask, why at 16 years old would he permit this to continue? That's the control. Kids don't have the psychological ability to see through manipulation."
Internet predators also use popular social network Web sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bolt to find targets. Profile areas on sites such as AOL and Yahoo are also handy tools for predators.
A predator can visit one of these sites and type in a school name to begin his or her search.
Using a Southtowns middle school as an example, Hubert found 15 students at one Web site who listed the school in their profiles. One student in particular provided her full name, the names of friends, her hobbies and other personal information.
"One girl put her full name and birth date on the World Wide Web, along with the names of her 12 best friends," Hubert said. "I have tons and tons of examples of this."
Parents, Hubert said, will be shocked to see some of the pictures their children and their friends post on these sites. Drugs, weapons and alcohol use are commonly depicted.
"We see kids with guns, with knives, with half-empty bottles of vodka," Hubert said. "All because they think it's funny."
MySpace had 20 million users less than one year ago. That number doubled to 40 million six months ago, and Hubert said the site now has 80 million users.
There are other dangers connected to the Internet, Hubert added, such as "cyber-bullying." She cited a case in the Midwest in which a student was the subject of bullies at his school.
The bullies decided to impersonate their target and created a Web site that purported to belong to their target. The site, which included a picture of the boy, claimed that he was gay and made other untrue claims. The distraught victim killed himself.
"They crushed this kid's spirit," Hubert said. "I probably get as many calls about cyber-bullying as I do about sex crimes against children."
The Internet and students
Holly Hubert, who leads the FBI's Buffalo Cyber Task Force said that 100 percent of all high school and middle school students she has spoken to have Internet access. Some additional facts: 50% of high school students have Internet access in their bedrooms. 33% of middle school students have Internet access in their bedrooms. 100% of high school students use Instant Messenger programs. 100% of middle school students use Instant Messenger programs. 100% of high school students have been contacted online by someone they didn't know. 100% of middle school students have been contacted online by someone they didn't know.
What can parents do?
There are ways that parents can monitor their children's Internet activity. Among the tips offered by Holly Hubert, head of the FBI's Buffalo Cyber Task Force: Type your children's names into search engines. Do the same with your children's friends. Popular engines include Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, Excite and Altavista. Type common topics such as your children's school, sports teams, town, teachers, principals and rival schools on these search engines. Visit social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook, Bolt and Bolt2 for the same reasons. Restrict Internet access to common household rooms such as the living room; prohibit Internet access from the bedroom. Monitor your children's E-mail. Advise your children that there are no privacy laws for the World Wide Web and what they post on the Internet will likely remain there even if they remove it at a later time. Because Web sites change over time, many Web crawlers take "snapshots" of Web sites and store them in caches for historical purposes. Remind your children that college admission officers and employers frequently check MySpace and similar sites when reviewing potential students and employees.
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