EASTHAMPTON — Joan Crowell’s 10-year-old son frequently plays the video game Minecraft and surfs Youtube to watch tutorial videos and gaming podcasts.
Even though her son is young, she said she’d like to know more about what he is exposed to on the internet.
That’s why the Easthampton mom joined about 20 parents and grandparents of elementary, middle and high school students for a presentation Tuesday night at Easthampton High School on how to keep their children safe online. The presentation, “Keeping Kids Safe and Secure Online: A Project Safe Childhood Presentation for Parents,” will be repeated for students at the high school on Wednesday.
Crowell said most of the topics discussed – social media, digital footprint, cyber bullying, sexting, sextortion and internet predators – do not necessarily pertain to her son right now, but she is at least aware of what to look out for as he gets older.
Easthampton School Resource Officer Alan Schaedel, one of Tuesday’s presenters, said the rapid change in technology keeps him on his toes.
From the time he started working in the schools more than a decade ago, technology has gone to flip phones with basic text messaging and photo features to smartphones with various social networks and applications.
“It’s ever-evolving,” he said, adding that he’s constantly keeping up-to-date with the programs students are using, and sometimes, they teach him. He encouraged parents to do the same.
In general, internet safety experts told parents Tuesday they should monitor their children’s gaming and internet habits. To learn more about a child is doing online, Assistant U.S. District Attorney Neil Desroches suggests parents play the games and use the apps.
“You play 2 minutes of Grand Theft Auto, you’ll know exactly what it’s about,” he said. “Rape, torture and murder.”
There are also fake calculator applications used to hide photos, said Karen Legace, a program specialist at Project Safe Children, an initiative through the Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation. She also advised parents to look up games and applications on the site commonsensemedia.org for reviews.
And keep in mind, presenters said, that many students talk to strangers online.
For example, a survey before the presentation found that 233 of 374 students at Easthampton High said they have talked to someone online that they did not know in person.
Sexting is also a problem parents should keep tabs on, said Schadel and Legace. They said sexting, or sending nude or sexual photos, happens mostly with Grade 8 to high school students.
Legace and Schaedel said many students are not aware of the consequences of sending nude photos. Photos of underage people are illegal, and people with these photos could face child pornography charges.
“If the image sent is of an adult and it is sent to a child, it’s also illegal,” Schaedel said.
Desroches discussed one site called Omegle, which has the slogan “Talk to strangers!”
Omegle matches people at random, allowing them to chat through video or text. People must be at least 18, or 13 and up with parental permission.
“To help you stay safe, chats are anonymous unless you tells someone who you are (not suggested!), and you can stop a chat at any time,” the website states. “Predators have been known to use Omegle, so please be careful.”
Through the site, Desroches said predators entice children to perform sexually explicit acts, and record the video.
Dating websites and applications can also connect strangers.
On Feb. 28, a 22-year-old Easthampton man was arrested charges of statutory child rape after sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl he met online, according to police.
The man told police they met through the online dating and meet-up application Skout, where the girl said she was 18 years old.
Schaedel said kids and teens lie about their age online all the time and some applications and sites require people to be at least 18, but do not enforce it.
The school resource officer advised parents check their child’s credit record.
He said some Social Security numbers have been obtained through different resources online, allowing people to use the identities, but with a different birth date.
Caitlin Ashworth can be reached at cashworth@gazettenet.com.