2. Cyber Safety in Schools
Presented by:
Margie Daniels – Executive Director, Middlesex Partnerships for Youth, Inc.
Onyen Yong – Director of IT/Assistant District Attorney
Middlesex Partnerships for Youth, Inc.
Office of Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr.

3. Risky Technologies OR Risky Behaviors?
Cyberspace
Risky Technologies OR Risky Behaviors?

4. What Are Kids Doing Online?
Instant messaging (IM)‏
Facebook and other social networking sites.
You Tube
Chat rooms
Webcams
Cell Phones: Texting, Sexting, Video
Interactive Games
Virtual Worlds: Second Life
Webkinz
Some of the things that we are going to talk about today are
Slide 4

5. 35% of adults have a profile on a social networking site
65% of teens have a profile on a social networking site
49% adults and teens said they used social networking site to make new friends
Almost ½ the kids that are online are visiting social networking sites, and ½ of them are using these sites to make friends
When we’re talking about “friends” we’re not talking about the people they meet at school or in your neighborhood. In many cases these “friends” are complete strangers.
Social networking sites have caused a disconnect. Kids tend to think that because someone is their “online friend” that they are their friend. . .
Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2008 5

6. Search
Username

7. User Names
Watching but not playing
Chat 7

8. Webcams Often built into computers Can be disabled
Inappropriate use possible behind closed doors

9. Cell Phones Texting Issues Over Texting
Use during school hours, despite regulations
Cyber Bullying
Sexting
“High Tec Way to Flirt”
Serious legal implications (distribution of child porn)

11. Holliston Police Department
Response to “Sexting” & hurtful “Texting”
Prevention Strategies
Education for children
Education for families and community

12. Online RPGs: World of Warcraft
"They build it in such a way that you have to keep putting more and more time into it to maintain your status. I remember thinking when I was married that it was downright exploitative to people who couldn't control themselves in that way. It's set up like a drug." 12

13. Online RPGs: World of Warcraft
News story: “Wedding Woes: The Dark Side of Warcraft”
"He would get home from work at 6:00, start playing at 6:30, and he'd play until three a.m. Weekends were worse -- it was from morning straight through until the middle of the night," she told Yahoo! Games in an interview. "It took away all of our time that we spent together. I ceased to exist in his life." 13

14. Second Life

15. What is Second Life?
Developed by Linden Lab
MUVE - Multi-User Virtual Environment
“Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents.”
Second Life is NOT a game
Main grid is for adults only (18+)‏ 15 15

16. 16

17. Teen Second Life Requires valid cell phone with SMS 13 to 17 y.o.
Started early 2005 17 17

18. Online Risks
Revealing Too Much
Predators
Cyber Bullying

19. Revealing too much

22. What have you posted online?
You Can’t Take It Back
Words and photos published online are there for the world to see - once out there, they can’t be taken back.
Any photo or video posted online can be saved, accessed and altered by anyone.
This applies even if your page is private.
Private conversations can be saved.
What have you posted online?

23. How He Knows These Friends
Name
Age
Home
How He Knows These Friends
Interests
Friends

24. Why Should You Care?
Family, friends, parents, teachers, and others will likely check your online life.
College admissions officials often check to see what online information they can find on candidates.
The same applies to employers you might want to work for in the future.
Interested in a career with a public life? Beware what you post!
Profiles & blogs may be viewed by online predators.

25. How Much is Too Much?
Information that could lead a predator to your door:
Photos or video should never be posted online if they show:
Backgrounds that reveal identifying information
Sexually provocative poses
Too much skin
Name age birthday phone number
School schedule location

26. Predators

27. Some Web sites such as www. freevote
Some Web sites such as offer users the opportunity to create online polling/voting booths.
Cyberbullies can use these Web sites to create Web pages that allow others to vote online for "The Ugliest , Fattest, Dumbest etc. Boy/Girl at ***** School".
Slide 27

28. Why Victims Don’t Report!
They do NOT want to be blamed.
They do NOT want the computer to be taken away!
They are worried that their report will NOT be taken seriously.
Be present, be fair.
There are a lot of good things about a computer 28

29. What won’t work Avoiding the internet
Using blocking, monitoring and filtering software as a stand- alone strategy
Monitoring is more effective than blocking in preventing youth from communicating online with unknown people
(Pew Internet and American Life Project)‏