Experts: Parents need to monitor closely Internet use by children
Toolbox
Associated Press - Published: January 8, 2005
BURLINGTON — Parents need to monitor what their kids are doing on the Internet to keep young users from becoming the prey of pedophiles.
That was the message from a panel of experts at a forum on youth Internet use and safety Thursday night at Burlington City Hall.
"The biggest danger to kids online is the same danger that kids have in the real world coming into contact with someone who has ill intent," said panelist Teri Schroeder, chief executive officer of i-SAFE America, a nonprofit group that educates young people about cyber dangers.
Parents need to catch up to the fact that computers allow children and strangers to communicate at all hours of the day, she said. "You would not allow a 50-year-old man to come into your son or daughter's bedroom at night and sit there and talk for hours," Shroeder said.
Too many parents allow that very same conversation to occur over the computer and they shouldn't, Shroeder said.
The purpose of Thursday's session was to educate the public about cyber dangers. Panelists included Lt. Mike Schirling of the Burlington Police Department and John Halligan, an Essex Junction parent who became an anti-bullying activist in the wake of his 13-year-old son Ryan's suicide in 2003. The session was sparsely attended – heavy snow fell outside and only eight people sat in the audience.
The forum, sponsored by i-SAFE, started with a video about a 13-year-old Connecticut girl who was strangled to death by a man she met online. Schirling said Internet-based crimes are on the rise in Vermont. Police and courts deal with about 350 cases annually. Many involve sexual assault on children and recruiting for child porn.
Teaching kids how not to be victimized is the best way to prevent new cyber crimes, Schirling said. "It's very difficult for law enforcement to keep up."
Halligan spoke of the shock he felt when he began retracing his son's computer use in the days after Ryan died. Halligan learned from Ryan's Internet buddies that the boy had been bullied at school. Halligan also learned that Ryan had exchanged messages glorifying suicide.
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