Be careful online
You have profile on FaceBook. To some, your information is meaningless. But to a predator, an academic adviser or employer, a few clicks can reveal details about someone’s life that could be used against them.
Social-networking sites are coming under scrutiny for just these reasons. Groups like the Canadian Centre for Child Protection’s Cybertip.ca are trying to raise the alarm about web dangers.
“With these networking sites typically, you’re exposing everything,” says Signy Arnason, Director of Cybertip.ca.
“What’s not resonating with children is that the Internet is a public space. You’d equate it to your child going with a photo album into Safeway and allowing people who pass by to view it. You’re doing the same thing placing all this information on the Internet.”
That openness is risky. In its first year of operations, Cybertip.ca logged 5,771 reports of potential online child sexual abuse: 21,000 to date. It found 93 per cent of those lured are female, 73 per cent aged 12 to 15. Ninety-five per cent of the suspects are male.
In the most recent B.C. case, Burnaby RCMP revealed Thursday they were investigating an elementary school janitor for having online contact with a female student, though no sexual allegations have been made.
In the U.S., the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children states one out of five kids online have been propositioned.
Just last week, a 15-year-old Florida girl disappeared after she snuck out of her house to meet a 24-year-old man she’d met on MySpace — a man who turned out to be a 46-year-old sex offender.
The primary fear about the safety of social networking sites (and there are dozens besides MySpace and Facebook — see sidebar) remains sexual predators. But there are other risks for kids, too. One concern is innocent photos a child or teen uploads could be used for insidious purposes.
“Kids need to know that once a picture, once anything, is posted on the Internet, quite often it is there forever,” says Const. Annie Linteau of the B.C. RCMP’s E Division.
“You don’t know who at the other end of the line is seeing that photo. You don’t know what they are doing with it. It is certainly possible for children to become victims [of sexual exploitation] without knowing the adults who are looking at the photos.”
