Internet security expert Robert Siciliano discusses a Scituate case where Daniel Riley posed as 18 on Facebook to groom and assault teenage girls. Over 10% of 13-17-year-olds have met strangers online in person. Siciliano says the problem is parental oversight, not technology, and recommends monitoring devices, reviewing communications, and talking to kids about predatory tactics.
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Welcome back. 7:56 on this Friday morning. Bail has been set at $15,000 for a Scituate man accused of repeatedly raping two teenage girls he reportedly friended on Facebook. So how does this happen and how can you protect your kids from being baited on social media? Joining us now live from our Beacon Hill studio is Robert Siciliano, internet security expert and McAfee consultant. Thanks for being with us this morning.
Thank you.
So the charges here, the man facing facing them, Daniel Riley, they're pretty serious. 6 counts of statutory rape of a child, 2 counts of rape of a child with force, and providing obscene material to a minor, as well as enticing a child under the age of 16. So, Situate Police declined to give the details on this, but word is that that guy friended these girls on Facebook. Are you surprised to hear about a case like this?
Unfortunately, I'm not surprised at all. McAfee recently did a study called The Digital Divide, which talks about what parents don't know about the internet and what their kids do know. And there's a serious difference. A study also found that more than 1 in 10 13 to 17-year-olds met complete strangers online, but then actually met them in the physical world. So the meeting of adult strangers by kids is unfortunately the norm today.
Well, the police officers there share that sentiment, I guess. One of them told Fox 25 he was troubled by how many reports of cases like this he's hearing and how the victims are getting younger and younger. How is it that you stop something like this from happening? You're talking about a meeting in a virtual world, and then all of a sudden they're meeting in person.
The problem stems not as an internet problem, but as a parent problem. OK. You know, it's like you would not give your kids the keys to the car unless you knew they were safe to drive. You shouldn't let them go online unless you as a parent know what you're doing and know that the child is safe on the internet. It really does boil down to understanding what the risks and the pitfalls are and essentially embarking on an education campaign for the whole family, knowing what those risks are, educating the kids that the fact is that at some given point in time, a 25 or 35-year-old man is in fact going to contact your 15-year-old daughter. And it's gonna happen, so you need to know how to respond to it.
So how— if you're a parent, I mean, how young is too young to allow your kids on Facebook? And if and when you do decide to allow them, if that's how your house operates, on Facebook, do you monitor it? Do you have their password? How do you keep track of that?
So, do you think a 15-year-old girl is gonna be capable of corresponding with a 25-year-old man? Absolutely not. Uh, the 25-year-old man with the predatory mindset believes, you know, if he knew then what he knows now, And he uses that philosophy to go after the 15-year-old, and he's able to essentially coerce her in many different ways using, you know, basic psychology 101 on her. And the parent needs to recognize that that's happening. So having access to their computer, having access to their mobile phone, having access to usernames and passwords, monitoring their communications, monitoring their chats, monitoring the media, the text messages sent and received, the the SMS and the photos and videos and so on. Having an ongoing dialogue with your kids, you know, who they're talking to, what are they discussing, and actually, you know, getting into their devices is one effective way or many effective ways of recognizing what risks they may be facing on a daily basis.
It seems like a difficult conversation to have, but it's one that parents need to be having with their kids. Robert Siciliano, we appreciate your expertise this morning.
