David G. Wallace

How Safe is a Chat Room?

Many of you may have seen the Dateline special dealing with child predators stalking children on some Internet communities like Facebook, MySpace.com, etc. Well if you missed the Dateline show, then you surely have seen the myriad of other local and national stories and investigative reports that have been conducted on a weekly basis. This two hour Dateline special truly frightened me, not only as a father, but also as a community leader, as the investigative report showed a sting operation in California. The result of this sting operation was that in a short 48-hour period, the law enforcement officials arrested 51 offenders that actually came to a home of (what they thought was) a 13-year old child. The only initial source that they had to make contact with the alleged 13- year old child was a single chat room.

The Internet has a huge impact on the world.  This communication tool allows us to get all sorts of information and communicate with others, either personal or business.  We all receive a whole host of benefits from having the Internet, but at the same time, it can be a very dangerous form of communication if certain precautions are not taken.  With some awareness and education we can be prepared to avoid unlawful behavior of others, and we can teach our children to take precautions and be more careful.

Parental Oversight and Education

We, as parents, have to take the first step forward and learn how we can protect and educate our children.  Our children are in the care and custody of us parents. Their life is complicated enough with all of the educational, athletic and social demands placed upon them. In a perfect world, our children should not have to spend time thinking about protecting themselves on the Internet. However, given the current environment, this omnipresent thinking about Internet security is a must. Children can easily sign up for different chat rooms. Yet many of these youth do not understand the consequences of giving out personal information to a stranger. As I have seen in the investigative reports, just one little piece of personal information (like their school name, their team jersey number, etc) can result with too much information being available to the public. It is our responsibility as adults and community leaders to make sure our young adults understand the potential dangers.

As we all mature, we learn that anything we put in print (either in a letter or e-mail communication) can be reproduced and used for the benefit of others. The age-old rule of the “New York Times headlines test” works best. If what you are writing is something that would not look good as a New York Times Headlines, then don’t write it! As an example, I have seen where some on-line web sites provide a “home page” environment for teens to post their photos, and to fill in the blanks and answer a series of questions that automatically populates a personal web site in which the world can see. However, the questions that are asked are very provocative. It appears that in an effort to be humorous or simply as a result of peer pressure, the youth could answer the questions, and not pass the New York Times Headlines test. In fact, I have seen situations where these web sites have been printed out and taken to school and given to teachers, coaches or community service leaders in an effort to embarrass the youth and cause them to be removed as a member of the group. In short, for competitive reasons, other youth are saying to the teacher / advisor … “is this the sort of person you want representing our group / team / etc.?” As parents, we need to make sure that our youth … as wonderful as they are … understand the capabilities of people and the repercussions of our actions.

In short, we really need to be involved with what our youth are doing on the computer. We need to make sure they understand not to give out any personal information like last name, phone number and address without asking their parent or guardian first.  Children need to be taught by their teachers and parents never to e-mail their pictures to anyone they don’t know, and do not open any e-mails if they don’t know the sender.  If your family has a web site with family pictures of your children, don’t include where they go to school, where you live, phone numbers, or any other personal information.

Online Educational Programs

There are many different programs that will educate the whole family on Internet safety and the best ways to handle unlawful behaviors.  I-safe ( HYPERLINK “http://www.isafe.org” www.isafe.org) is one online educational program that is designed for parents and children to learn about predators and other Internet safety issues. The lessons can be performed in the classroom and taught by teachers, or have the parents teach their children these important lessons at home.

Another good web site, www.getnetwise.org, helps inform children, parents, and the entire community on what can be done to be safe online.  Depending on the age group, this web site aims at all different levels. It is geared for children, parents, teenagers, law enforcement and teachers.  It gives many safety tips in an “age appropriate” environment, as the tips given for preteens are different than the tips given for teenagers.

We must continue to educate our youth and community about the dangers that can happen from online chat rooms and other web site communities such as Facebook, MySpace.com and others.  This will be an ongoing project in the community, and this is an issue that we, as adults and community leaders, must not ignore. We must always become better educated ourselves about Internet safety, so that we can impart this information and wisdom to our youth.