OPP educates parents on “Cyber Risks”

Nov 19, 2009

OPP Constable Natalie McDowell and cadet Nick Henderson-Todd and Tammy Sharpe at “Cyber Risks” presentation

In an effort to make parents aware of the possible risks that cyber space poses to youngsters, South Frontenac OPP Constable Natalie McDowell and OPP cadet Nick Henderson-Todd put together a presentation called “Cyber Risks” that was held at Loughborough Public School in Sydenham on Nov.10.

LPS School Advisory Council chair Tammy Sharpe, who helped organize the event, explained that “different concerns were raised last year about technology coming into the schools via cell phones and we felt that parents might not be 100% aware of the kinds of information that their children have access to and the risks that the technology poses to them.

“Our kids know a lot about the technology but not about the consequences that can arise so we thought it would be helpful to make parents aware of how they can help their children to be aware of the risks and help them to avoid them.”

The presentations began last year (this was the last in a series of 3) targeted three specific groups: elementary students, high school teachers and a the final session, now parents. The presentation began by outlining the possible threats that cyber space poses to youngsters, namely: cyber predators, cyber bullying, access to inappropriate information and scams.

McDowell pointed out that many parents are oblivious to these threats.

Statistics gathered by Symantec in 2007 showed that 49% of Canadian parents surveyed were unaware of their children’s on line aliases and close to that number were not aware of social networking sites like “Facebook“, “MySpace” and “YouTube”, sites where kids share and post information about themselves and others.

The advice from the OPP is to know what you kids are doing on line. Visiting the sites that your kids want to join is encouraged. One does not have to join a site to get an understanding of its overall flavour. The site “Vampirefreaks” was mentioned and a quick overview of what is on offer there might lead a parent to decide that it might not be appropriate for their youngsters.

Similarly, even sites that may appear to be benign, upon closer inspection may be also be deemed inappropriate. For example the Neopets site appears benign with its animated characters and games but a closer look at the list of games on offer, titles like “Splat-A-Sloth“, “Spell or Starve” and “Snot Splatter“, might raise a few parental eyebrows.

Parents were made aware of web sites such as "ratemybody.com" or "ratemyteacher.com" which encourage kids to post their evaluations of such topics (which in itself is questionable) and can lead to problems.

Other simple measures can be taken. Parents can join social networking sites where their kids are members. This ensures that parents will receive postings by their kids and so can be aware of what information they are putting out there.

An on line "buddy" list is a good idea provided that kids know their buddies personally. Posting personal diaries and rants on line are both unwise, unless it is a child's intention is for the whole world to see.

Placing parental controls on a child’s computer will block children from accessing un-savoury sites that are not appropriate for them. Purchasing current software from reputable sources is recommended for this purpose and keeping virus software updated is also recommended.

Ensuring that your child’s personal information is protected is also important. Anyone joining face book should be aware that it has just recently been legally determined that the onus is on the subscriber to set their own privacy settings and that the “failure to do so will allow others users to access all personal information,” said constable McDowall .

While this can be a time consuming task, parents are encouraged to assist their kids in adjusting privacy settings to ensure their on line privacy. Like most things in life an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and it was also noted that removing information from a site once it is posted can be tricky.

Children should be made aware that posting unsavory information of any kind on line can come back to haunt them, especially when it comes time to applying to schools or for jobs. Also the police treat as “real” all information posted on the net, meaning that 1. it is taken seriously and 2. It can have legal consequences.

The topic of on-line dating was touched upon and once again the advice tended to be grounded in common sense: Don’t meet your date for the first time at your home. Meet at a public place. Another interesting bit of advice is not advertise on line or let your kids advertise online when you will be vacationing.

The best way to avoid computer viruses is to not open any emails from unknown sources and to be wary of purchasing products from advertising sources that pop up on your screen. Parents and kids alike should be aware of the plethora of cyber scams and should be very wary of providing their personal information online.

It was also suggested that webcams should be located in the kitchen or family room, not in a private personal space in the house. There was a recent incident where a cyber predator hacked into someone's web cam and activated it without their knowledge.

At the end of the evening parents were invited to take a copy of The Internet Safety Handbook, put out by Crime Stoppers Kingston/1000 Islands Inc.

They were also given a bit of computer homework to do and it was suggested that they Google their own names, as well as the names of all of their families members on their computer and see what turns up.

Anyone who missed the presentation but would like more information on internet safety can visit www.opp.ca