Glendora Unified Holds Forum on Internet Safety at Sellers Elementary

Mark Flath, recognized in the law enforcement industry as one of the leading experts in electronic crime as a supervisory Information Technology Specialist with the United States Secret Service, spoke to parents at on Tuesday evening as part of the Glendora Unified School District’s continuing effort to educate parents on the issue of internet safety.

Chatting and on-line gaming, the tactics of on-line predators, on-line social and where among the topics addressed by Flath at the forum, where more than 160 parents and community members were in attendance.

Melissa Germann, Glendora Unified School District’s Coordinator of their Safe/ Drug Free program said the opportunity to have Flath present free of charge was a welcome occurrence, especially at a time when state funding for similar programs is not a fiscal reality.

“We have an advisory committee comprised of administrators, teachers, parents, and community leaders such as , a licensed therapist and (drug abuse) internship counselor, where we discuss anything that has to do with the health and welfare of students,” said Germann adding that online safety of children is an issue that parents bring up consistently.

“In this case, Internet safety kept coming up at all grade levels, we have parents representing elementary school, middle and High School in the community,” said Germann.

Glendora Chief of Police Robert Castro told the assembled parents and audience members, “The threat of the Internet is something we cannot control.”

Castro urged parents to help the Police with their effort to catch online predators and to apprehend those attempting to exploit children in the city.

“It’s my job to expose this to you,” said Flath after explaining the concept of geo-tagging, technology which allows anyone to pinpoint exact location of Internet users with the potential to be used as a tool by online predators. “It’s my job to scare the heck out of you to help you to ask yourselves if you’re doing your jobs as parents.”

Flath said while modern society is flooded by smart phones and gaming devices with WI-FI access, studies show that 96 percent of teens interviewed had internet access and 55.4 percent reported exposure to the more than 4.2 million porn sites on the internet.

“I tell people, it’s your house, I don’t care if your kids are 30 years old and living at home. It’s your house and your rules. It’s your phone bill, your kids are not paying your phone bill and it’s your right to know what’s going on.”

Flath gave parents examples of what Internet predators say to kids to lure them away from family members and warned them to be on the look out for signs of "grooming" such as calls to unknown numbers, spending excessive amount of time online, and panicking over restrictions set by parents on internet usage.

“The Glendora Police Department has a very good and proactive program, if you suspect anything, call their cyber-tip line or call 1-800-THE-LOST. Report anyone who asks your child to meet him in person. It’s your responsibility to keep your kids safe.”

Flath said parents need to do their homework by asking their kids which social sites they visit frequently and by checking their screen names, privacy settings on social media sites like Facebook and examining their children’s friends’ lists.

By employing a role-reversal technique on a number of parents in the audience, Flath demonstrated how easy it would be for a criminal to find personal information and the location of students at Sandburg Middle School via “open” Facebook pages and other online methods.

Flath made parents aware of the existence of potentially dangerous websites like Chat Roulette and of the IPod Touch’s WI-FI capabilities which allow kids unrestricted access to the internet.

 “You need to know the technology that’s out there and  how dangerous it is,” said Flath adding, “if you don’t know how to protect them, don’t give them the technology.”

“The parents tonight were very responsive and they all had very good ideas to share,” said Mary Suzuki, director of instruction and student welfare following the event.   

Suzuki added that in the case of emerging technologies and innovations, parents need to keep up with the changing trends in order to prevent cyber-bulling and to keep kids free of harm.

Flath ended his presentation with a handout outlining online resources for parents including www.missingkids.com, www.netsmartz.org, www.komando.com/kids and www.icanstalku.com.