Child porn: Internet dangers arise
Date: March 16, 2005Source: The Chronicle Journal
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A Thunder Bay family was appalled to discover that their daughter — a Grade 6 student — had her photo posted on a peer’s website.
Anita Berglund, a family friend, said the girl was not aware that her school photo was posted. and she was especially upset when her name, age and school accompanied the photo. Berglund, who withheld the girl’s name to protect her identity, said the family fears the website could be an invitation for pedophiles to “hunt” down children.
“These young kids have web pages and they’re providing a lot of information that’s dangerous — especially in small towns,” she said.
The website was in fact an innocent project compiled by a group of friends, but Berglund said she’s heard of websites where youths attack each other through vicious gossip.
“They don’t realize the risk — it’s not a safe place for kids to be publicizing their information,” she said.
The family filed a complaint with Lycos-Tripod, the website creators that launched the site, and the web pages in question were removed.
Although Internet chat rooms are often blamed for initiating contact between young people and dangerous individuals, Thunder Bay Police spokesman Chris Adams said websites can also be a means of targeting youths.
“Cyber crime is becoming more of an issue and certainly our (police) service, as others, are starting to try and gear up to deal with it by gaining more expertise,” Adams said.
“If parents don’t keep an eye on it then it could lead to problems.”
He said live, real-time chat rooms are easily accessed by outsiders and it’s recommended that users refrain from using their surname and area of residence.
“Protecting people’s identity is becoming more and more important — it’s a very complex form of concern because (the technology) reaches across borders so easily,” Adams said.
He said police are constantly lobbying the federal government to update cyber-related crime laws.
Thunder Bay’s public and separate school boards have strict Internet use guidelines.
Tom Mustapic, business and corporate services superintendent at the Thunder Bay District Catholic School Board, said Internet safety is part of computer class lessons.
The U.S.-based Internet crime against children task force has seven full-time investigators and typically receives 30-40 child exploitation and child pornography allegations a month. The task force also oversees Canadian cases.
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| 2010-11-29 10:51:18 - ever sick . peds are gross. !!!!!!! savvy |
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