Police and parents discuss online safety

Parents learned chatroom terminology and rules for safety.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- Several concerned parents spent time with city police learning how to protect their children from predators who may try to enter their homes using the Internet as a key.
Officers from Girard Police Department offered a slide presentation, brought parents up to speed on Internet terminology and answered questions about Internet safety for young people. Police Chief Frank Bigowsky said parents should try to stay as current as possible on what their children are doing online.
"The purpose of this meeting is to let parents know that we are aware of these things and they should be aware of them also. Parents should be taking precautions at home," he said.
The presentation started with a video from the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office featuring a woman who had chatted frequently online when she was a child. The chatting turned horrific when she met and was molested by a man she had been chatting with online.
Bigowsky told the audience there is no completely reliable way of safely allowing children to chat online.
MySpace.com
A large part of the discussion was dedicated to explaining and instructing parents on the safe use of a Web site called MySpace.com, which has become increasingly popular with young people. The site allows members to create Web pages, chat and use search engines to find and possibly meet other members.
"It is a chat site for young people, but just because it is a chatroom for young people doesn't mean there are only young people on it," Bigowsky said.
"The thing about MySpace is that a person can be anybody they want, and there is no way of checking it."
He asked how many students in the audience had visited the site. One mother looked at her son's raised hand in surprise, then asked the boy, "When?"
Detective John Norman walked parents through the site, explaining how to use its features. He said, generally speaking, parents should see to it that all information about minor children is removed from the site.
Bigowsky said there are some basic recommendations for parents concerned about child and teen Internet use, such as putting computers in a visible place in the home outside of children's bedrooms and monitoring what they are doing. He said to make sure children are not giving detailed information in chatrooms or self-made Web pages and never post any pictures. Parents should also go online with kids sometimes, he said.
jgoodwin@vindy.com