Cyber Crimes Discussed at Spring Valley Citizens Association Meeting

Spring Valley residents learned about cyber crimes involving children during the meeting Thursday night.

Deputy District Attorney Rebecca Ocain said children and teenagers are often victims of cyber crimes because they spend more than seven hours on the Internet each day.

“It seems like nowadays teens can’t live without their cell phones,” Ocain said. “Kids are getting them younger and younger. It’s part of their body.”

Ocain said many youth share personal information, such as their full name, school and where they live on social networking sites, chat rooms and online journals.

Ocain said online predators seek this information and use “computer and text talk” to disguise themselves as young people online. She added that 77 percent of sexual solicitations of children online occur in chat rooms or by instant messages.

Children and teens also share too much when they text, Ocain said. She warned attendees about "sexting," which is sending sex-related messages or photos via cell phones.

She said many people don’t realize that sexting is a form of child pornography. A 16-year-old girl who sends a sex-related photo to her 16-year-old boyfriend can be charged with distribution of child pornography, Ocain said, and the boyfriend can be charged with possession of child pornography.

“There is no age as far as how old the person has to be that’s possessing it; it’s what age the person in the picture is at the time,” Ocain said.

One in five teens ages 13-19 have sent or posted nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves, Ocain said.

“Kids think it’s no big deal,” she said. “‘Everybody is doing it,’ they say.”

In addition to online predators and sexting, Ocain warned against cyberbullying, intentional and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones and other electronic devices.

Although Ocain said cyberbullying isn’t considered a crime by itself, it can be damaging to the victim. Ocain referenced one highly publicized bullying case in which the victim, Megan Meier, a 13-year-old girl, committed suicide because of being cyberbullied through the social networking website MySpace.

To help prevent and spread awareness about these types of crimes, Ocain advised adults to warn children that the messages they send and the information they share online are permanent.

“Children are curious,” Ocain said. “They don’t know what information they should and should not be giving out on the Internet.”

Parents should review what's on the computer and phone, Ocain said. She added that parents should also be aware of the terms children and teens use when chatting and texting because some of them are codes for when parents are in the room.

“And they need to be told about the consequences," she said.

Tips for Parents

• Go online with their kids
• Use resources from sites like www.missingkids.com
• Limit Internet usage
• Add parental monitoring software
• Look at the online sex offender registry at www.meganslaw.com
• Check cell phone caller ID
• Search computer history

Tips for Teens

• Don't assume anything you send or post to remain private. 
• There is no changing your mind in cyberspace—anything you send or post will never truly go away. 
• Don't give in to the pressure to do something that makes you uncomfortable, even in cyberspace.
• Consider the recipent's reaction.
• Nothing is truly anonymous.

Parent Acronyms

• P911—Parent alert
• PAL—Parents are listening
• PAW—Parents are watching
• PIR—Parent in room
• POS—Parent over shoulder

Personal Information Requests

• LMIRL—Let's meet in real life
• ADR or addy—Address
• ASL—Age/sex/location
• RU/18—Are you over 18?
• S2R—Send to receive

For a larger list of acronyms, visit www.netlingo.com