My Space - My Kids

I saw an interesting presentation a week or so ago at work by an FBI agent on internet predators that still has me thinking about how my kids may be using the internet and IM. The female FBI agent shared with us many photos and stories of internet predators that she has personally arrested in stings similar to those seen on NBC's "To Catch a Predator." Similar to the show, she pretended to be a 13 year old 9th grader that talks online and via MySpace to several men from all over the country interested in meeting her in Maryland. In one case, she showed photos of a middle aged father of three, that owned his business, and was "well respected" who lived in the state of Montana. This person flew to Maryland, got a hotel room, filled it with roses, then proceeded to pick the "13" year old up from her school. Needless to say, he was arrested, prosecuted, and sent to prison for 6 years. The FBI agent shared several more cases with us, one involving a nuclear scientist working at the Pentagon, who sent a naked picture of himself to the girl he thought was 13. He, too, was arrested and received a 6 year prison sentence.

We also searched MySpace for some of the mistakes that teenagers make when posting photos and information about themselves that makes it easy for predators to find them. As an educator I often talk about Attention, Relevance, and Confidence (the ARCS Model) when designing instruction, and this presentation had all the above. It was particularly relevant not because I am an educator, but because I am the parent of three children, two of which are 12 years old. I immediately went home and had them show me their webpages, and went line by line through their IM contacts questioning them on each one. I then did a search of my oldest son's high school on MySpace to see who had accounts and what they were doing, showing, and saying. The comments about drugs, partying, etc., were similar to those I saw during the presentation. You'd like to think that it can't happen to you, or that your school and kids are immune to such things. Sticking our heads in the sand and praying it won't happen to us, are nice, but won't work. With all the good the internet can be, we have to accept there is also bad. It's our responsibility to stay vigilant and teach our children these lessons as well