Robert Siciliano, CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com, discusses online dangers for kids including social-networking abuse, predatory texting, and account defacement. He tells parents to monitor their children's online activity, use monitoring software, and actively check their communications.
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Well, it seems every day we hear stories about issues with internet social networking sites, from cyberbullying to kids falling victim to sexual predators online. Internet safety now is one of the top concerns for parents. Here with us now is Robert Siciliano, CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com. Talk a little bit more about some stories in the news today and maybe how parents can learn from these stories and prevent their kids from falling victim to some of the stuff that's going on out there. Robert, thanks for coming in. Let's start with one of the stories that happened nearby in Norwalk. A student had a Facebook page there. Apparently some other students hacked into that site, put information on there that was offensive, sexually explicit, falsified. A lot of people thought that the girl who had the Facebook page is the one who wrote that. She gets in a lot of trouble. Eventually it turns out that she didn't do it. First of all, how common is that, number one? And number two, if you are a student or a youngster who has a page like that, how do you prevent people from doing this type of thing?
Well, first, there's very little that you can do to prevent from someone defacing defacing you on the web. The World Wide Web is open, and it's really based on the honor system, and that people who use it are going to do things honestly. But we know that not everybody is honest. And so it will always be that someone can, you know, deface you by posting your picture, posing as you, and basically stealing your identity and compromising your information.
Is there any protection you can take? Maybe not even getting involved in these things, or even that may not be enough.
Well, one thing that I recommend that everybody do is that they continually Google themselves, that you search out you on the web and find out what's posted about you.
Not a bad idea to, uh, make sure everything about you is on the up and up. Uh, let's go to Winchester now. Story of a teacher's aide there allegedly sending sexually explicit text messages, text messages and emails to a 13-year-old student. Uh, police say he was trying to entice the, the young girl to have sex. As a parent, that's your worst nightmare. You're in a situation where somebody you trust is trying to entice your child. We're talking about text messaging now, and we were just talking off the air, the cell phone, people have to realize, as you say, is like a small computer. So even though it may not be online, it still has the same effect as being online.
No question. And we've heard this story before, and we're gonna hear this story again. This is a problem that technology has made that much more possible. That the, um, the pedophile, let's say, no longer has to meet your child in public at a park. That they can entice them over time and build that relationship over the internet via text messaging. So I think it's very important that parents are aware that this is going on all day, every day, somewhere in the world, that there are predators that are going after children, and that's never gonna stop. So as, as informed as the parent is and should be in the tools that they take advantage of to monitor their child's activities regarding this technology, then that parent is being proactive in protecting their child.
What— before we get to our next case, but what, what is the fine line there? Because kids say, well, I want you to trust me. I don't want you snooping my emails and text messages. So there's a fine line there as far as being a parent and losing the trust of your kid. However, you know, parents do want to maintain what's going on. How do you walk that fine line where you are sure that your kids are being safe online, yet at the same time not losing the trust of your child?
First of all, you snoop. As a parent, you need to know what's going on with your child. If they're going to be using this technology— Just do it. As a parent, you have to know who they are communicating with via text messaging, via cellular phone, via the internet. You have to know. Not to know, I feel, is irresponsible because there are There are predators that are out there right now and they are looking for the next child. They're looking for the parents that aren't paying attention to their kids' activities on the internet.
And this is another case in Vermont, the case of Brooke Bennett. Still a lot to come out about this, but police believe one of the theories that maybe she was going to meet somebody that she was talking to online in one of those chat rooms. And we've heard this story over and over and over, yet no matter how much parents seem to talk to their kids about it, maybe they're naive to the ways of the world, or maybe the parents aren't, as you say, snooping or paying enough attention to what's going on.
See, I don't think that the parents are really clued in as to what the dangers are regarding the internet and the social networking sites. I, I think that parents generally are more naive than the children are. That the parents are functioning in an environment where they were taught by their own parents not to talk to strangers. Here, with the internet, a stranger can be in your child's bedroom at 3 AM via their cellular phone or via the internet, and that parent is completely oblivious to that fact. So the more the parents understand about the issues faced and the technology at hand and what they need to do to protect their, their family, the better the parent is gonna be in a position to protect their family.
Besides staying on top of it and snooping it, what other things can parents do to make sure that they know how the technology is being used in terms of their kids?
Well, there are monitoring software, there are programs that you can install on your child's cellular phone and on their computer where you can monitor every single thing they do online. Email sent and received, chats that are sent back and forth, websites visited. You can monitor everything your kids do, and I really believe that you should.
All right, well, some great advice, Robert, as always. Stay on top of it before something happens.
Be proactive.
Absolutely. Robert, we appreciate you coming in. Great advice. Appreciate it.
