As a public service, Currid & Company provides you with links to information on protecting children from predators on the Internet. We believe that children and teens should be allowed use of the best of the  Internet for learning and studying.

We also believe that usage should be monitored. As we study products that help parents observe and control Internet use we will post them to this page.

Among those we have tested with positive results are:

http://www.im-protector.com/
http://www.contentwatch.com/

Did you know? 

"...a 37-year-old man solicited a 16-year-old girl by visiting MySpace.com. The man misrepresented himself as being younger, then tracked her down. Lafayette Sheriff Lt. Craig Stansbury said the man showed up at the victim's after-school job and followed her to the parking lot, where he forced her into his car and attacked her. 'The assailant knew where she worked because she posted it on her MySpace profile,'

 “A Hughson firefighter was sentenced Thursday to a year in jail for engaging in sexual activity with a 16-year-old Lodi-area boy he met online. Camagna was arrested, and investigators soon learned that the two had met on MySpace.com, a popular Web site where friends meet up and exchange messages.”

 “A high school teacher accused of making sexual advances to a 14-year-old girl on the Internet was arrested on computer pornography charges Wednesday. William Warren Greico, 42, first approached the girl after he saw her posting on myspace.com in August.”

“Joshua Perry, 27, faces up to five years in prison after being convicted earlier this month of four charges that included sexual misconduct and furnishing alcohol to a minor. The criminal complaint resulted from a romance that began after Perry read the girl's profile on the computer service MySpace.com.”

What can a parent/guardian do? 

Thoughts to Consider

Your House is the Mall

Consider the thoughts of  commentator Joe Wilcox. "Few parents really understand how significant a role the Web plays in how their kids socialize. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study, 86 percent of kids 8 to 18 report having access to an in-home computer; 35 percent have computers in their bedrooms, which may not be closely monitored by parents.

According to a December 12, 2005, Business Week story, "The MySpace Generation": "Fully 87 percent of 12-to-17-year-olds use the Internet, vs. two-thirds of adults, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project."

Overall, kids tend to multitask, simultaneously conducting media and communications tasks, such as watching TV while using the Internet, or talking on the phone while instant messaging. It's not unusual for my 11 year-old to simultaneously IM and Webcam or IM and chat on her cell phone.

More importantly, the Internet plays a central role in how kids socialize. According to the Business Week story, "Computer use for activities such as social networking...has soared nearly threefold since 2000, to 1 hour and 22 minutes a day on average." The kids hang out as easily online as the mall, with IM being one major activity."

Public Information Pamphlets

The web offers a wide range of pamphlets to inform the public of the office's functions and responsibilities, services available, and crime prevention tips. See the following:

Protecting Our Kids - Website - Pamphlet English - Folleto en Español

Young people with unmonitored access to the Internet are exposed to a wide variety of risks, some of them life-threatening. Learn how to be vigilant in safeguarding our children’s Internet activities.

Parry Arfab -- Internet lawyer and child safety expert

http://www.wiredsafety.org/media/pr/predatorsonline.html

In a survey of 10,800 teenage girls conducted in 1998, Parry learned that 12% of the teen girls polled admitted to meeting Internet strangers’ offline. Two years later, Family PC reported that 24% of the teen girls polled and 14% of the teen boys polled were meeting Internet strangers’ offline. At a recent visit to a small community in the Midwest, three children admitted to being involved with Internet predators, one was badly tortured and raped.

Parry can tell you:

Parry Aftab is also the author of The Parent's Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace (2000, McGraw-Hill) and heads up the world's largest online safety and help group, WiredSafety.org, and its famed WiredKids.org, WiredPatrol.org and WiredCops.org programs. (Parry formerly headed up Cyberangels, whose volunteers and programs are now run under the WiredSafety family umbrella.) Contact Parry and WiredPatrol.org on any issues relating to Internet crime and abuses, safety and privacy and help. They handle child pornography tips, cyberstalking and harassment, fraud and all forms of hacking and abuse. Need help? Contact www.wiredsafety.org.