By Tsmall
By Melina Ann Collison
St. Louis - If you are concerned that your child is talking to a sexual predator over the Internet there are things you can do to help. Keeping your children safe is the most important thing. If you do find out that your child is communicating with a sexual predator contact your local police department, the FBI, and/or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children immediately.
One of the most important things you can do is educate yourself about the Internet, Internet safety, Internet laws, Internet definitions, Internet and text message acronyms, and utilize a service that allows you to track your child’s movement online. If you find your child is talking to someone and you want to get the authorities involved turn off the computer right away. This will prevent a loss of information and evidence that the police will need.
Here are things you can do if you think your child is talking to a sexual predator on the Internet:
- Know all of your child’s passwords. This includes sign in names for the Internet, game sites, E-mail, MySpace, Twitter, chat rooms, instant messaging, Facebook, Internet relay chat, and anything else your child is involved in online. Also, know their cell phone passwords for locking the keypad, checking messages, and turning the device on or off.
- Monitor and check all Facebook, MySpace, Twitter accounts, game accounts, and cell phones regularly. This could mean signing in more than once each day if your child is very active on the Internet. Since you cannot monitor chat room or instant message activity it is important to check everything else you can. If a sexual predator meets your child in one of these places they will continue to contact them through any means necessary so be on the lookout.
- Go through your child’s computer and search the information and files. Include photos, Internet browsing history, e-mail files, recent documents, and anything else that looks suspicious. Sometimes sexual predators will send videos and pictures that are pornographic in nature. Or you child could be talking to someone via webcam and have a recording of the session. Look through everything you can.
- You can utilize a redial feature for your home phone where you can retrieve your last dialed call. If you’re using cell phones check your dialed calls online. Most services offer this free and you can simply log into your account to view dialed/received/missed calls, text messages, internet usage, multi-media messages, and much more.
- Caller ID is another feature that could be used to track who is calling your home or cell phones. You can also block your number from appearing on other Caller IDs. Call your telephone company and ask if they offer the service that blocks incoming calls. This will stop callers from calling you anonymously.
- Honesty might be your best policy here. Talk to your child, reinforce the dangers of Internet predators, and ask them if they are being victimized.
For more info:
If you suspect your child is talking to a sexual predator online call the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department at 1-314-444-0100 or visit them on their website.
Contact the FBI by calling 1-800-225-5324 or visit FBI.gov.
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Comments
Many of the items mentioned as being hard to do (like monitoring chat rooms) can be easily done with monitoring software like spector or eblaster. Pew Internet Research has published a report that says parents found monitoring software more useful than Internet filtering and blocking in protecting kids. I downloaded both Spector Pro and Eblaster from a company called SpectorSoft.com and they allow me to work with less stress during the day and sleep better at night. Spector records every detail about what my kids do on the web, every chat, email and even screen images so I can watch what they were actually doing.
It's obvious that crosstecdoug works for Spector... probably doesn't have kids.
So, up front, I work for PC Pandora monitoring software. I don't hide that... the undeniable truth is that it is imperative for parents to monitor everything their kids do online. There is too much at risk. Too much blind trust is handed to a child using a very powerful, adult tool. Don’t be afraid to be a parent and exercise control of the internet…
And we wonder why kids are out of control these days and have no morals…
www.pcpandora.com
Great article! Unfortunately, many parents aren't aware of the dangers online and the various ways kid's can access the Internet, i.e., cell phones, Xbox, PlayStation, etc. My husband and I were in the dark about the dangers online until a friend told us about www.guardchild.com a holistic website that provides parents with the tools and information needed to understand what the issues are and how to protect their children.
We, as one of your other readers purchased parental control software to monitor what our children are doing online as well as to block inappropriate websites.
Additionally, we decided to integrate cyber education with our kid's so that they too would better understand how to be safe when surfing the Internet, and be aware of warning signs for potential sexual predators and cyber bullies.
We recommend your readers visit the website so they can increased their understanding of what kids are doing and how to take preventative measures.
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