CLICKS Training class at the Easton Branch of Talbot County Public Library

On November 13, 2007 from 2:00 - 4:30 p.m. I was able to attend a training class at the Easton Branch of the Talbot County Public Library on CLICKS. What is CLICKS? It stands for "Community Leadership in Cyber Knowledge and Safety." From the program announcement: "We have designed the C.L.I.C.K.S. Train the Trainer program to equip Maryland’s Community Leaders with the tools they need to speak with students, parents and community groups about how to keep children, 'tweens and teens safer online."

The program was introduced by Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler. He noted that this is the 3rd jurisdiction presentation of CLICKS and that they hope to offer more around the state. Kids have been asking great questions during school visits, yet no school has yet to incorporate Internet safety as part of its curriculum. We can ignore or we can train kids how to handle some of the problems that they'll encounter online. It’s easier to have victims not become victims in the first place.

The state has partnered with NetSmartz. NetSmartz has provided a free service available on the Internet. They cater their programs to different ages of kids and give a very interactive presentation. Just as we tell kids how to be safe on the street, we need to let kids know how to be safe in a cyberworld.

The next speaker was Bonnie Greenberg, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland. She represents the Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood. Helping to have less victims is the goal. The idea is to educate all of you so that you can go out and educate others. Netsmartz is an excellent tool.

Kids take things literally - keep that mind. This project is also known as Project Safe Childhood, which is a priority of their office. They try to prosecute more criminals and prevent though education the exploitation of children online. The number of children sexuality exploited online is very high. She mentioned federal statutes and penalties such as mandatory sentences. 1 in 7 youth who are regular Internet users are sexually solicited online. The goal here is to develop partnerships with other organizations in the community.

Bonnie noted the great work and resources available from NetSmartz. Discs are also available from her that have a lot of material, including cartoon scenarios geared to kids.

Rob Lance (sp?) of Maryland State Police spoke next. He talked about NetSmartz and how it can be effective. His unit is small, but over the past 2 years they have been able to provide Internet safety to over 10,000 students statewide. In 6 years of investigating computer crimes, there’s no doubt that education has played a major role. We need to get this information into the schools and Internet safety has to be one of our priorities. We can achieve great success together. We can set the standards for Internet safety for future generations.

The major portion of the program was a presentation by Laurie Nathan from Netsmartz. She is the Lead Outreach Coordinator for The NetSmartz Workshop. NetSmartz is service of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

She started by showing a brief video. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was launched in 1984. It was created by Congress and works in coordination with the Justice Department. It is now a nonprofit organization with offices around the country. Every day 2000 children are reported missing. Fortunately the vast majority are recovered quickly. Unfortunately about 115 are missing long-term. The Exploited Child Unit operates the cyber tip line. The center encourages citizens to take an active role. Amber alert is now used to recover children quickly.

NetSmartz was founded in 1999 as a cooperative effort of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It was expanded to every state and works closely with law enforcement. Clickie is the spokes-robot for K-2nd grade students. The video also described the ICAC, Internet Crimes Against Children task force.

Presentation Objectives

Attendees will:
• Understand the need to teach Internet safety
• Be familiar with the NEtSmartz characters, website, etc…

Goals of NetSmartz:
• Enhance the ability of children to recognize dangers on the Internet
• Enhance the ability of children to understand that people...

Rules for Online Safety
• I will tell an adult I trust if anything makes me feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused. (If kids encounter anything like this, kids are encouraged to turn off the monitor and tell a trusted adult)
• I will ask my parents or guardian before sharing my personal information. (personal info: Name, address, school, social security, sports teams, pictures, description about your family or yourself, schedules, credit card numbers.).
• I won’t meet in person with anyone I have first “met” online.

Risks to Kids and Teens Online:
• Exposure to inappropriate material
• Sexual solicitation
• Harassment and bullying (and now cyber-bullying)
• Revealing too much personal info

Online Victimization of Youth (available in packet)
• 1500 youth surveyed
• Ages 10-17

Keep in mind that a cell phone is an extension of the computer. Most services are available there that are on the computer. If a parent takes away the computer the young person may still have access to an Internet predator via the cell phone.

Harassment and Bullying
• Perpetrators
o 44% offline friends or acquaintances
o 50% mail
o 28% female
o 22% unknown
o 85% of incidences occurred when youth were at home
o 33% included contact or attempted contact via phone, mail, or in person
o Of the 1 in 7 youth who encountered a sexual solicitation or approach, only 12% told a parent
o Only 5% of sexual solicitations were reported to a law agency.

Social Networking
Pages on social networking sites can contain a lot of personal information, but they should not. Personal info can even be conveyed by a school uniform (in example, a 15year old girl with “Vikings” on it)
o Information can be inadvertently revealed in pictures
o Sexually provocative pictures can be used for exploitation

Friends:
o The number of friends can be used as a popularity issue, even if it puts her at risk.
o Friends inadvertently provide a lot of personal info on someone’s page. Be careful what you’re putting on each other’s sites.
o Predators can use vulnerabilities and insecurities to “groom” children into a face-to-face meeting.

Tracking Teresa:
This video showed how a predator could location various pieces of information about a child to then find further personal information. With very little to start with, the predator was able to locate personal information, including full name, address, etc. of the child in 20 minutes.

NetSmartz Materials
o High-impact safety materials include:
o Animated music videos, games, and activities for students in grades K-4
o Comic-book-style characters for students in grades 5-8
o Real-life stories for teens that address the consequences of online choices.
o Informative videos for parents and guardians with definitions and safety tips.

UYN - Use Your NetSmartz, offers tutorials for young kids. The main point is to teach them not to give their personal info out on the Internet. One interactive activity asks, "Who’s Your Friend on the Internet?" Kids are given 3 choices and asked to find the WYSIWYG (What you see isn’t what you get).

NetSmartzKids web site: www.netsmartzkids.org

NSteens web site: http://www.nsteens.org/. This is a site intended for the “tweens.” All of the animation is created in-house. Laurie noted that their offices in Alexandria, VA and that they are happy to offer tours of their facility. The web site includes character bios, music, etc.

For teens there are Real Life Stories called Survivor Diaries. These are even more serious tone. Three videos on Cyberbullying are included. One video addresses why it's not a good idea to give your password to your friends.

Resources for Educators and Law Enforcement
www.netsmartz.org
www.netsmartzkids.org
www.netsmartz.org/education This is where you find the content downloads of other resources. Listed by state. Each is marked regarding age-appropriate level. Downloadable videos, activity cards, and education resources are included.

Age appropriate presentations can be downloaded from www.netsmartz.org/presentations
Each is tailored to the attention span and age of audience.

For parents there is www.netsmartz411.org. It includes helpful items, such as a guide to chat abbreviations.

CyberTipline: Report incidents of child sexual exploitation to the CyberTipline by calling 1-800-843-5678 or at www.cybertipline.com

For more information about NetSmartz, contact Laurie Nathan, Lead Outreach Coordinator at 703-838-8194.