Parents can keep kids safe online; Justice agent urges Web vigilance

HERMITAGE, Oct 04, 2008 (The Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- NWS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- The Internet is a powerful tool, but parents need to make sure their children are using it safely.

Special Agent D. Elaine Surma of the Erie Department of Justice Thursday helped to equip about 15 adults to do just that during a presentation at Hickory High School.

"I wish this auditorium was full because we feel this topic is so extremely important," Hermitage schools Superintendent Karen Ionta said. Parents and guardians from five Shenango Valley school districts were invited to the session.

In today's fast-paced world, kids are growing up with technology that allows communication at anytime from any place with anyone. They use the Internet to do research, download music, shop and myriad other things.

And while that means youth are savvy about computers, often more-so than adults, "with good comes bad," Ms. Surma said. "You try to keep your thumb on your kid, but there's only so much you can do."

Children are exposed to sexual images, bad concepts of self and right and wrong through the media. As a result, a lot of kids are making themselves older than they need to be, she said.

This can all play out over the Internet.

A lot of things can happen, but one of the worst is the exploitation of a child by sexual predators, Ms. Surma said.

"It's been going on since who knows when," Ms. Surma said. "But now they're given a technological advantage to be around these kids."

Children are taught not to talk to strangers on the street, but many don't see the danger of talking to them online, Ms. Surma said.

The cyber world is "a very different world and someone can literally reach out and touch you," Ms. Surma said.

Things that seem innocent, like photographs of kids at a pool party or girls posing at a sleepover, are fodder for sexual predators.

Social networking sites like Myspace.com or Facebook.com are just one way kids can put information about themselves into cyberspace.

During the day, Ms. Surma spoke to Hermitage students about how to protect themselves online. When she asked how many students had social networking pages, "almost every kid put up their hand, even some in the elementary," she said.

Online predators troll for children on such sites. The average age of victims is 11 to 15, Ms. Surma said. And the anonymity the Internet provides can be dangerous because people can pretend to be anyone.

"There's no myspace police," Ms. Surma noted.

Predators manipulate children, Ms. Surma said, sharing stories of two teenage girls through videos produced by the state Attorney General's office.

One 13-year-old girl from near Pittsburgh thought she'd made friends with another young teen girl online who became her best friend. That girl turned out to be a 38-year-old man who helped orchestrate the girl's abduction.

The girl was chained to a basement floor in Virginia for four days, tortured and sexually assaulted before being rescued.

"The sad part is, she's one of thousands of kids this happens to every day," Ms. Surma said.

Another young teen was not so lucky.

The sixth-grader had a suggestive screen name and met a 24-year-old married man online. One night the girl did not show up when her aunt went to pick her up at the mall. A couple days later her body was found strangled in a stream. The man was convicted of her murder.

The Attorney General's office has arrested more than 180 online predators, most through sting operations where undercover agents pretend to be children, Ms. Surma said. They range in age from 19 to 78 years old.

Even with parental vigilance, kids can find ways to surf the Web at friends' houses or late at night.

"You're not going to stop them, but what we can do is educate them," Ms. Surma said.

For more information, visit Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett's Web site at: www.attorneygeneral.gov

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