[July 25, 2009] Officer: 'Kids have no idea' about dangers lurking online Tweet Jul 25, 2009 (The Ottawa Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Just because they are on your friend list, doesn't make them your friends. In fact, Det. Tammy Moews says unless you know someone personally, you shouldn't add him or her to your friend list on popular social-networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. "With all the networking sites, they are allowing people that they don't really know to gather information about them off the Internet," Moews, with the Franklin County Sheriffs Office, said. Moews said children frequently are posting their names, dates of birth, hobbies and pictures online so that anybody has access to the information. "Posting all of that stuff on the Internet makes it so pretty much anybody can go and get that information and start their own collection of stuff on kids," she said. Moews and other law enforcement officials have visited area schools to spread information about the dangers of these social-networking sites, but she still thinks more education should be done. "I don't think they understand the full danger of it," Moews said. "Kids have no idea. They are putting pictures on there, pictures of their friends, full names and addresses, phone numbers." But Moews said it's not entirely the children's fault. Their parents need to monitor their usage, she said. "It's about education and parents being involved with their kids and knowing what they are doing and where they are going," Moews said. "A lot of people are naive and think it won't happen to my family." It's not only a problem at home, Hal Bundy says. Bundy, who is in charge of information technology at the Ottawa Library, said parents frequently drop their children off at the library and don't monitor their actions. "Parents need to stay with their kids," Bundy said. "And that's true at home, that's true at Wal-Mart and that's true at the library." He said the library does have safety precautions in place to make sure children are not being exposed to unwanted material while surfing the Internet. "All libraries have to have a filtering system by federal law," Bundy said. He said when someone punches a Web address into a library computer, which is free to anyone who has a library card, it goes through a filtering system that determines whether the site is on the good list or the bad list. "If they go some place that's on the bad list, they will get a display that says they have been blocked," Bundy said. "That's what a lot of libraries do." Bundy said most of the sites that are blocked are pornographic sites or sites with violent content, but the list has its flaws and is ever-growing. "The block list is half a million," he said. Even though many dangerous Web sites are blocked, Bundy said certain features -- like e-mail -- are not blocked and still pose threats. "That's the most problematic part of things," he said. "There is no filter that can detect that sort of thing." Despite the thorough filtering system, such sites as MySpace and Facebook are not blocked at the library, and Moews says those can be the most dangerous sites because of predators. "Regularly I go on and check MySpace profiles and just do some playing around," Moews said. "They are putting their hobbies, when they are home, what they do. It would be very easy for a predator to find that." Internet safety tips for users --Don't give out personal information -- name, age, phone number or address --Do not respond to threatening instant messages or e-mails --Choose a screen name that doesn't identify your gender --Don't share your password with anyone -- not even your best friend --Remember that many people online may not be who they say they are Safety tips for parents --Purchase an Internet safety program to monitor children's actions --Check history files --Keep the computer in a family room -- not a bedroom --Report suspicious activity to law enforcement agency at cybertipline.com Source: Det. Tammy Moews, Franklin County Sheriff's Office ------ To see more of The Ottawa Herald or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.ottawaherald.com Copyright (c) 2009, The Ottawa Herald, Kan. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]