Parents' guide to being safe online

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by Jeff Saunders

Reporter

Nordonia Hills -- Cyberspace can be a nice place to visit, but it contains dangers that parents in particular need to be aware of.

"The Internet is like any big city," said Mike Walton, a technology specialist with the school district, "There are a lot of great places to go, but there are also places you don't want to go to sometimes and places where you certainly don't want your kids to go."

Walton was speaking to several dozen parents attending an April 16 Internet safety program at Nordonia High School. The event was sponsored by the high school's Parent Teacher Student Association. The speakers also included Dr. Deborah Wallace, the district's community intervention coordinator, and Macedonia Police Sgt. Keith Obly.

Walton said there are a number of technical ways that parents can keep track of what their kids are doing on the Internet (see sidebar on page 14), but parents can start by just being aware.

"The easiest way to know what's going on is to keep the computer in say a living room or a den," he said.

Walton said a big issue is information that kids provide about themselves on such social networking sites at MySpace and Facebook. Though kids have the option of making their pages on these sites private, many do not. Even when the page is private, he said, there have been times when a friend will take that information and post it on his or her public page.

"It's only as private as the weakest link," he said.

In addition, kids will sometimes create more than one page to fool their parents.

"They keep the safe one for Mom and Dad and the fun ones for other kids," he said.

Wallace said that to show students how public their information can be, she has done searches on MySpace and found pages of Nordonia students. Then when she sees them, she surprises them by greeting them with their usernames and talking to them about information they have provided.

"They say, 'You can't do that' and I say 'Yeah, the whole world can do that,'" said Wallace.

Obly said that the Internet can be a useful tool for kids, but a dangerous one too, with estimates of the number of kids who have been solicited by pedophiles going as high 20 percent.

"We have the job of teaching them how to use that tool safely, he said.

Wallace said cyberbullying via the Internet or cell phone text messaging is also a growing concern.

"A lot of these things happen outside the school, but unfortunately, it often comes into the school environment," she said.

Wallace said that the insidious thing about cyberbullying is that the bully does not see how their actions Affect others so they are able to disassociate themselves from the emotional impact. She added that when kids tell adults that they have been victims, attention should be paid and care should be taken that the child does not respond in a way that aggravates the situation.

"Talk to your kids about how to deal with their anger," she said "Take them seriously."

Obly said that if the bullying involves threats, it is possible that a misdemeanor menacing charge can be brought against the bully.

Wallace said that in the final analysis, adults have a responsibility to understand the dangers of technology.

"Kids aren't able to see around corners and it's our job as adults to help them see the consequences," she said. "We're supposed to be smarter than they are and keep them safe."

E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3169