Online survey 'shocking'
Mon, June 4, 2007
More than half of London pupils surveyed have posted information that puts them at risk.
By
JENNIFER O'BRIEN, SUN MEDIA
A shocking number of London kids are making themselves easy targets for sexual predators who cruise the Internet, an informal survey has found.
The alarming figures suggest one in four children 11 to 14 have met face-to-face with strangers introduced only online.
Despite years of warnings about stranger-danger, more than half of them have put identifying information such as phone numbers and addresses on public-access websites, youth workers say.
"We were shocked," said Shannon Liddington, outreach worker with RISE for Youth, a project that aims to reduce sexual exploitation.
"The children we talk to are absolutely putting themselves at risk. The level of naivete they have is incredible.
"Every one of these kids knows that if someone drives up to you at a bus stop and asks for your name and school you don't give it to them."
During education seminars, the group has surveyed 600 Grade 6, 7 and 8 London pupils and found 60 per cent have put personal, identifying information on websites such as MySpace and Facebook.
Twenty per cent of the children also admitted posting pictures of themselves online .
But most disturbing is the fact 25 per cent have met people they only knew online.
"That really did blow us away," said project co-ordinator Jessie Rodger. "It is absolutely the most dangerous thing a kid can do."
Compounding that statement is the fact London police have charged seven people with Internet luring in less than two months since the department launched its Cyber Crime Unit in April.
"It's like shooting fish in a barrel to zero in on (predators) out there," said Det. Sgt. Kelly Johnson, head of the Cyber Crime Unit.
In the seven recent local cases, Johnson said officers posing as someone else nabbed predators who thought they would be meeting youths they had befriended online.
There are likely many cases that haven't been intercepted, Johnson said, adding the unit has heard about London girls being sexually assaulted by people they met online.
Like others, Johnson warned against giving out identifying information.
"It is alarming, the number of students that give out personal information," agreed Ray Hughes at UWO's Centre for Prevention Science. "It's like posting up a sign on the (Highway) 401 with all your personal information."
The local numbers are consistent with Canadian findings, according to RISE, but slightly higher than those recorded in the U.S., said Jeff Godlis of iSafe America.
That federal web education group has surveyed more than 100,000 American children and found 20 per cent -- one in five -- met strangers off line.
The findings show that even as kids become savvy about Internet use -- through social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook -- they aren't always being safe.
"Youths don't equate strangers on the Internet with those on the street," Rodger said.
As a result, kids who would balk at giving their names or schools to a stranger on the street are willingly offering details up to online contacts.
"When they start talking to people for months online, they don't feel that is a stranger," Liddington said.
"They are like, 'It's my friend. I know what their favourite food is, I know what movie they like . . .' "
"Now predators don't even have to leave their bedrooms to find out everything they want to know," Liddington said.
Rise for Youth is a 15-month project run by Western Area Youth Services, a London group home agency that offers counselling.
The aim is to educate kids and parents about sexual exploitation. The project focuses on the Internet because that's what has opened the playing field for predators, Rodger said.
"It used to be poverty and homelessness were the biggest risk factors for kids being sexually exploited," she said. "All that has changed because of only one thing -- the Internet."
Dangers are illustrated with horrifying cases such as that of Kacie Woodie, a 13-year-old Arkansas girl murdered in 2002 by a 47-year-old predator who had befriended her while posing as a teenager online.
Liddington and Rodger suggest parents need to know their kids' online activity.
But they've met parents who don't even know how to get on the Internet, she said.
MORE INFORMATION
- www.myspace.com/riseforyouth or call 519-432-2209, ext. 3203.
TIPS FOR PARENTS
- Talk to young kids about Internet activities and Internet safety.
- Learn how to use the Internet by signing up to networking sites.
- Keep computers in a common area, not in a bedroom or secluded basement.
- Remember kids also can get online outside your home.
TIPS FOR YOUNGSTERS
- Don't post identifying information such as telephone numbers, addresses, school information or last names online.
- Don't post pictures of yourself.
- If you're going to meet someone for the first time who you've only talked to online, tell an adult, take friends and meet in a public place.
