This document discusses various internet safety issues that parents should be aware of regarding youth internet use. It notes that while 93% of parents say they have established internet rules, 37% of students report having no rules. It outlines dangers students may face online like cyberbullying, interactions with online predators, identity theft, and exposure to inappropriate content. The document encourages parents to monitor their children's internet activity, communicate guidelines to help protect them from these risks, and educate youth about maintaining safe internet behaviors.

1. Youth Internet Safety
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What will they do when you’re NOT
watching?
Pastor Eric Cedo - eric.cedo@gmail.com
Family Christian Church
Communications Seminar
April 4, 2009

2. Who’s Watching?

3. What did your parents warn you
about when you were their age?

4. Today’s Kids
• Cyberbullying
• Online Predators
• Cybercriminals
• Cyberterrorists
• Piracy
• Sexual Content
• Propaganda

5. Digital Divide
• 93% of parents say they have established rules for their child’s Internet activity
• 37% of students report being given no rules from their parents on using the Internet
• 47% of parents feel their ability to monitor and shelter their children from inappropriate
material is limited
• 95% of parents say they know “some” or “a lot” about where their children go or what
their children do on the Internet
• 41% of students do not share where they go or what they do on the Internet with their
parents
• 26% of students believe their parents would be concerned if they knew what they did
on the Internet
I-Safe Statistics (www.isafe.org)

6. Train up a child in the way he
should go: and when he is old,
he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6

7. Summary:
Teach children the way they
should go…so when you’re not
watching they will follow your
teaching

8. Be sober, be watchful: your
adversary the devil, as a
roaring lion, walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour,
I Peter 5:8 (ASV)

9. Summary:
Be Alert…the devil, through his
disciples, is lurking online
seeking whom he may prey
upon

10. Wired Generation

11. Kids Online
• 87% of teens use e-mail
• 60% have laptops/desktops
• 97% play video games
• 75% have cell phones
• 93% use the internet
• 30% blog (54% read blogs)
• 55% use wikipedia
• 74% have an mp3 player (aka: iPod)
• 70% use social networking sites

12. Kids Online
• 58% of students admit to using the Internet
unsafely, inappropriately, or illegally
• 12% of students have unsupervised Internet
access at school
• 55% of students report having given out personal
information (e.g. name, age, gender, home
address) to someone they have only met online

13. Glossary
• Blog (short for weblog)
– A personal or corporate website where
an individual will “post” stories, ideas,
news, etc. in chronological order
– Typically the reader can post comments
about the story…creates a dialogue with
the audience

15. Glossary
• Social Networking Site (SNS)
– A site that allows users to create
personal profiles to share news,
events, photos, personal
information, etc. with friends (peers)
– Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.

17. Glossary
• Wiki
– Collection of web pages that are built,
populated and monitored by the users
and not a lone individual or company
– Collaborative Website
– Wikipedia

19. Glossary
• User-generated Content Site
(UGC)
– A site that allows users to post their
own content and share it with other
users
– YouTube, Flickr, iTunes

21. Glossary
• Peer-to-peer File Sharing Site
– A site that allows users to search
other people’s computers for files to
copy
– Limewire, Bearshare, BitTorrent

22. DANGERS!!!

23. Kacie Woody
Thirteen-year-old Kacie Woody liked to play
soccer, sing, and chat online. On December 3,
2002, she vanished from her home in Holland,
Arkansas. Police found her body, along with
that of her abductor, 19 hours later in a storage
facility. She had been murdered by 47-year-old
David Fuller of La Mesa, California, who then
committed suicide. Kacie’s friends told police
that she had an ongoing online relationship
with some boy named David whom she
believed was another teenager. Signs of a
struggle at her home indicated that she was
unaware that he was coming to see her and
unwilling to go anywhere with him.

24. Online Predators
• 71% of teens reported receiving messages online
from someone they did not know
• 40% reported they usually reply and begin chatting
with that person
• 18% reported telling an adult about the encounter
• 45% have been asked for personal information by
someone they did not know
• 30% have of teens have considered meetings
someone they have only talked to online
14% HAVE HAD SUCH AN ENCOUNTER

25. Online Predators and Sex
• 1 in 4 Youths (10 – 17) has been
exposed to sexually explicit pictures
online without seeking or expecting
them
• 1 in 5 Youths (10 – 17) has received
unwanted sexual solicitations online

26. Online Predators Tactics
• Seeks out provocative user names.
• Studies your profile.
• Starts with an innocent IM.
• Asks personal questions, A/S/L.
• Wants you to private chat.
• Asks you for personal info. (Phone number, e-mail address, home
address, school name, etc.)
• Wants to be your best friend, boyfriend or girlfriend.
• Starts sexual conversations.
• Is all about keeping secrets.
• Asks for personal photos.
• Wants to send you strange gifts.
• Wants to set up a face-to-face meeting.
• Makes threats when you no longer want to chat with him or her.

27. What to do?
Parents
• Allow children access
only in common areas
• Monitor conversations
• Talk to your kids before
and after they are online
about the dangers
• At risk – teens who need
to talk to someone about
problems
• Monitoring software
Children
• Never talk to someone
online that you don’t know
• Never give out personal
information (including
profiles) like school name
• Tell your parents if you’ve
been approached
• Netiquette – same rules
online and off
• Don’t lie!!!

28. Cyber-bullying
Ryan Halligan, a 13-year-old student of Albert
D. Lawton School in Essex Junction, Vermont,
fell victim to cyber bullying. “Ryan tried to
escape the bullying at school by seeking
refuge on his computer at home, but it
followed him into cyberspace,” said John
Halligan, Ryan’s dad. “After his death by
suicide, I found out that Ryan was harassed
online by his school-day bullies, and he
unfortunately tried to retaliate in unhealthy
ways. As a parent, I know now that I should
have stepped up the monitoring of my son’s
computer activities. I wish I had known the
potential for this to occur and how to prevent
it.”

29. Cyber-bullying
Myth — I cannot be held accountable for what I say or do
online.
Fact — False. Cyber Bullying can be considered a form of
harassment in most states punishable by law as a
misdemeanor, and in some cases a felony, if there is a
reasonable threat to a person’s personal safety. Most
schools have their own bullying plan in place with penalties
that can range from detention to expulsion. The United
States Data Protection Act also upholds the right to keep
personal information and records private. Depending on
how personal the information is, posting someone’s private
and personal information on the Internet without permission
can result in punishment by federal law.

30. Cyber-bullying
1 in 14 Youths (10 – 17) has been
threatened or harassed online
Only 50% of those harassed have reported it
52% of Youths have admitted to saying
hurtful things online

31. Cyber-bullying
• Be strong and stop it early. Don’t stoop to their level and lash back.
• Don’t suffer in silence. Tell an adult. Keep telling people until someone
takes action.
• Don’t open or read messages from cyber bullies.
• Contact your Internet service provider abuse department.
• If the problem continues, alert the local police department.
• Tell your school if it is school related. If your cyber bully attends your
school, contact your teacher or principal.
• Don’t erase the messages. Log all dates and time. Put them in a folder
and hold them as evidence.
• Change your e-mail address or screen name.
• If it’s happening with text messages, change your cell number.
• Take screen shots of your chat room pages.
• Save URLs, e-mail addresses, and profiles of the bully.
• Stay protected—never agree to meet with a bully face to face.
• Block the bully if you are in a chat room or IMing.

32. Piracy (Illegal Downloads)
September 9, 2003 — Brianna,
a shy seventh grader from
Manhattan, New York, is sued
for illegally downloading more
than 1,000 songs. The
Recording Industry Association
of America filed suit against 60
other suspects in the New York
area on the same day. Each
person was subject to the
possibilities of fines of up to
$150,000 for each song.
— New York Daily News

33. Piracy (Illegal Downloads)
Myth — I cannot be sued for downloading music and movies
off P2P sites. They’ll never catch me.
Fact — True and False. You can’t be sued if you have
downloaded songs that have been put online with the
approval of record labels and artists—which usually
involves paying for royalties. If you download unapproved
tracks from unsanctioned sites—whether it is one song or a
million—you are violating copyright laws and you run the
risk of being sued. The Recording Industry Association of
America (RIAA) filed 3,000 lawsuits against individuals as
of May 2004, and in some cases sought financial damages
of up to $150,000 per copyrighted song.

34. Piracy (Illegal Downloads)
• P2P sites are not illegal, but trading unauthorized music and
movies is. The U.S. constitution protects P2P sites from being
shut down. The argument is that P2P sites are not providing the
illegal files —they are only providing a way to share files with
others logged onto the site. Just because there are P2P sites
doesn’t mean you have to use them.
• Downloading music and movies without paying on unsanctioned
sites is illegal and can result in criminal penalties.
• There is a good possibility of downloading a virus when using P2P
sites.
• You are also creating a gateway for a hacker to jack your personal
stuff on P2P sites.
• Other hitchhikers unknown to you could gain access to files on
your hard drive through the file-sharing network.

35. Piracy (Illegal Downloads)
What to do?
Find a safe site where you can download legally.
Songs and movies that you find on legal
download sites are:
– In the public domain.
– Uploaded by artists who are trying to get exposure.
– Released by record companies trying to build interest in
a CD.
– Paid for by you for the right to download, and the site
pays the artist and/or record company royalties.

36. Cyberterrorists/
Cybercriminals
• Spam
– Avoid opening e-mails from businesses you don’t know
– Get anti-spam (GMail)
• Viruses/Spyware
– Get viruses from opening attachments not e-mails
– Can also get a “Trojan horse” by downloading software
and e-mail attachments
• Cyber-criminals (identity theft)
– Never give out credit card info to a site that isn’t
“trusted” – Google tools
– Use PayPal – doesn’t give credit card info to sellers

37. Other issues – 3 “P’s”
• Pornographic content
– Use parental controls on internet options
– Moderated safe search on Google
– YouTube requires a login for over 18 – has strict policy against
porn
• Plagiarism
– Make sure you reference your sources for school reports!
• Propaganda
– Many sites won’t be pornographic but not suited for children.
– Satanic sites, hate sites, just plain worldly sites not suitable for
impressionable children

38. Conclusion
• Rules offline apply online
• Don’t just pull the plug – train up the child
• Take a firm stand – computer usage is a
monitored activity just like TV viewing
• Use appropriate software and internet
settings
• Keep up – do your research and stay
“plugged in”

39. COMMUNICATE

40. Thank you!