This
has been an eye-opening week for us – Brooke and I attended the Governor’s
Summit on Bullying on Tuesday, and I’m still reeling from today’s
Chrysalis Roundtable presentation, THREATS TO YOUTH ONLINE, presented by Mike
Ferjak, Senior Criminal Investigator with the Iowa Department of Justice.
I had heard Mike give a presentation at a mother-daughter event several years
ago, and was astounded about how frequently – and how easily – a young person
can fall into the throes of a predator online.
Here
are just a few statistics:
One in
five U.S. teenagers who regularly log on to the internet says they have received
an unwanted sexual solicitation via the Web. Solicitations were
defined as requests to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk, or to give
personal sexual information. Crimes Against Children Research Center
25% of
children have been exposed to unwanted pornographic material
online. Crimes Against Children Research Center
Only 1/3 of
households with internet access are actively protecting their children with
filtering or blocking software. Center for Missing and Exploited
Children
75% of
children are willing to share personal information online about
themselves and their family in exchange for goods and services.
eMarketer
Only
approximately 25% of children who encountered a sexual approach or
solicitation told a parent or adult. Crimes Against Children
Research Center
One in
33 youth received an aggressive sexual solicitation in the past year. This
means a predator asked a young person to meet somewhere, called a young person
on the phone, and/or sent the young person correspondence, money, or gifts
through the U.S. Postal Service. Youth internet Safety Survey
77% of
the targets for online predators were age 14 or older. Another
22% were users ages 10 to 13. Crimes Against Children Research
Center
In
his position, Ferjak works for the Iowa Attorney General and has a permanent
assignment to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation’s (DCI) Cyber-Crime
Unit where he serves on the Federal Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC)
Task Force. Mike is also assigned to the Attorney General’s Human
Trafficking enforcement and prosecution initiative. He has served as the
lead investigator for the Sexually Violent Predator Unit in the Attorney General’s
Office, and with his knowledge and experience, is called upon by law
enforcement, judicial, professional, community, and school groups across the
country to provide up-to-the-minute facts on why this is such a significant
problem.
Some predators use the anonymity
of the internet to prey on vulnerable children and teens, whose internet access
is often unsupervised. Activities include exchanging child
pornography or seeking victims online. The internet allows them to share
images and information about children and to make and stay in contact with
them. Predators are present on children's chat rooms, frequently
pretending to be children themselves. Some actively arrange meetings
with children, going to extraordinary efforts and incurring large travel and
other expenses…the stories are endless and shocking.
How
are the youth victimized? By innocently becoming entangled in an online
relationship with someone who represents him or herself as a young, attractive,
interesting and thoughtful person. Adults establish
"friendships" with children online, then attempt to arrange a
face-to-face meeting, potentially to sexually abuse or exploit the child.
They may then make online arrangements for the exchange, sale or purchase of
child pornography (the actual exchange or delivery occurs through the mail,
hand-to-hand exchanges, e-mail, and other electronic means) , or arrangements
between adults seeking sexual access to children and adults willing to provide
and/or trade children for sexual purposes.
Ferjack
reports there are an estimated 130,000 sex offenders using MYSPACE (precursor
to Facebook), and that the average age group sought for sex trafficking
purposes is 11-14 year olds. And 14% of child pornography online
involves infants – birth to 12 months old.
If
you are a parent, friend, teacher, or interested adult, here are some internet
safety tips to deliver to the children in your life:
Avoid unfamiliar "Chat
Rooms". Chat rooms are places where many people can gather and
discuss various topics of mutual interest all at one time.
Don't talk to people online that
you don't know. Offenders can easily fool others.
Never use your real name, age, or
indication of your gender in your screen name or email address. The most
prevalent internet crime today is cyber stalking.
Never post personal information in
a user profile. Public resources available online can lead an offender to
learn much more about you through internet searching.
Use an up-to-date
firewall. A firewall will block hackers’ “pre-attack probes,” called port
scans. A firewall should also block traffic or communications from a
virus that made it onto your computer through your personal information.
Use an up-to-date
virus scanner. Most virus scanners will
automatically add virus definitions. Update definitions once a week to have the
most current definitions to detect the latest viruses.
Use Windows Update. Windows Update
provides patches for known vulnerabilities in Windows and other Microsoft
products. Windows Update can be automated to check and install
patches automatically.
Avoid opening email from someone
you don't know, even email from known persons with unexpected or unusual
attachments.
Report any incidents to the internet Crime
Complaint Center (www.ic3.gov).
If you are aware of a child you suspect or believe is in
immediate risk of being harmed or exploited, contact your local law enforcement
agency and report the situation to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children at www.cybertipline.com.
If you have information
concerning a missing child, report it to your local law enforcement
agency and contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at
1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).
We
so appreciate Chrysalis Board member, Lieutenant Joe Gonzalez, for his
leadership in connecting this vital information to us and to our friends.
And because there is so much more to online abuse and bullying, we will
schedule another presentation by Mike Ferjak to share more information on
bullying and social networking. After the first of the year, we’ll notify
you of the time and place.
Please take time to forward this information to friends – there
is no reason not to.
