Web site arms parents, schools against online child predators

BANGOR – A new program aimed at keeping children safe from Internet predators is now being offered at no cost to all schools in Maine.

Parents, children and law enforcement officials also can access some of the interactive resources and download helpful information.

Created by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the NetSmartz Internet Child Safety Program is available in Maine thanks to a partnership of the state Attorney General’s Office, the Maine Department of Education and state Department of Public Safety.

While the Internet has become a valuable educational tool, it’s also used by sexual predators to prey on children.

But now, students in kindergarten through grade 12 can learn to navigate the World Wide Web safely using the age appropriate materials found on NetSmartz’s Web site. The site, which features animation, games and music for younger pupils and real-life stories for teenagers, offers advice on how to spot Web users who try to get strangers to meet them, send pornographic pictures or ask personal questions.

In addition, parents, educators and law-enforcement officers can get ideas on how to use the materials to begin discussions with children about potential dangers on the Internet. Also available on the site are research statistics about online child victimization to include in presentations.

Training workshops will be held in October to show teachers how to incorporate Internet safety education into their classrooms, Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said Tuesday.

The idea is to reduce the Internet child exploitation that can occur when sexual predators infiltrate Internet chat rooms and obtain instant messaging screen names.

NetSmartz aims “to help kids understand that they shouldn’t give out their personal information or trust people they meet online, and to help parents understand that they should know who their kids are talking to online,” said Jessica Maurer of the Maine Attorney General’s Office.

“Parents would never allow a sexual predator into their child’s bedroom, but they don’t think twice about having the computer in the bedroom with no supervision,” she said. “And that’s the same thing.”

According to the NetSmartz Web site, a recent national survey of children ages 10-17 shows that:

. Approximately one in five have received a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet in the last year.

. One in four had an unwanted exposure to pictures of naked people or people having sex in the last year.

. One in 17 was threatened or harassed.

. Less than 10 percent of sexual solicitations and only 3 percent of unwanted exposure episodes were reported to authorities such as a law-enforcement agency, an Internet Service Provider, or a hot line.

In 2003 and 2004, the Maine Computer Crimes Task Force of Internet child exploitation received 1,117 reports – a 173 percent increase over the two previous years, according to a joint news release issued Tuesday by Attorney General Steven Rowe, Education Commissioner Gendron, and Public Safety Commissioner Michael Cantara.

While filtering programs help keep students away from inappropriate Web sites, NetSmartz “gives kids strategies for how to stay safe,” said Crystal Priest, technology coordinator for SAD 4 (Guilford), one of five Maine school systems selected for pilot training last year.

Jan Kalendon, technology coordinator for the Maranacook Community School District where the program was tested in the middle school, called it “a really good resource for teachers to get materials and lesson plans on how to teach Internet safety.”

One of the benefits is that parents don’t have to wait for schools to use NetSmartz, and can simply access the free Web site themselves, she pointed out.

Kalendon said the program featured a video of a real-life scenario in which a sexual predator was able to track down a teenage girl in only 20 minutes using information she posted on the Internet.

For more information log on to www.NetSmartz.org.