Officials Seek Protections for Children Online

For Press Publications

Parents and public officials discussed the dangers children of all ages could encounter while browsing the Internet at a seminar held Saturday morning.

Sponsored by House Minority Leader Lee Daniels R-Elmhurst, “The Internet and Your Kids” offered parents information with which they can protect their children from online dangers.

The event was held at the Addison Park District’s Community Recreation Center.

Legislators in the Illinois House are currently addressing the expansion of penalties for people who knowingly distribute materials to minors with the intent of seducing a juvenile over the Internet.

“Attorney General Jim Ryan has been very active in this area and passed a bill giving the attorney general power to investigate child sexual offenses when performed by computer such as the distribution of child pornography,” Daniels said.

“We want to develop expertise on a statewide basis so that the whole state of Illinois would have an expertise they can call upon, vs. Just doing it county by county,” he said.

Also on hand was Dan Garon, supervisor of the Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Unit of the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office.

“It’s more than just their [children’s] exposure to the pornographic pictures; the child molesters unfortunately are on there [the Internet],” said Garon. “We have battled them at the parks, the playgrounds, the schools, the malls - with registration laws and notification laws, and we have done well - but they have opened a new battleground on the Internet, and we’re trying to catch up to them."

Garon said people who prey on children adapt to technology and will do whatever they can to reach out to their young victims.

“They are committed to acting on their urges. This Internet is the place they have chosen to try to do it,” said Garon. “It’s a lot easier - people are watching them in other places but they’re not watching them on the Internet.”

The state’s attorney’s office has established a unit consisting of three attorneys to prosecute Internet child pornography

“The question of what we do with access to these sites by children is something that is really plaguing every legislative body in the country,” said Daniels. “We are concerned about what parents can do in terms of limiting their children’s access to these sites.”

Internet chat rooms are where many child-predators find their victims, authorities said. Children must be warned never to give out addresses, phone numbers, or school name without permission from their parents.

Ann Wasman, who works for Republican state Rep. Tom Cross of Yorkville, is a retired school librarian and editor for the American Library Associations. She offered advice for parents who want to guide, teach and protect their children.

“The problem with the Internet is that it is totally anonymous and so things happen on the Internet,” said Wasman. “Kids like being anonymous, but they forget that means somebody else is too, and so the people you’re dealing with may not be who and what they say they are.”

Another problem officials identify with chat rooms is that they allow a child to converse with another person without being monitored.

“Victimization is the most frightening thing of the Internet because this is the parent’s biggest nightmare where someone lures your kid into a dangerous situation,” said Wasman.

Safety tips for children include:

Inform parents or teachers if they see something online that is scary or that they do not understand.

• Don’t respond to messages that make them feel uncomfortable or uneasy.

• Never give out credit card numbers or passwords online.

• Never arrange to meet in person someone they met online without first discussing the meeting with parents and having an adult accompany them.

Other dangers children can encounter include: online romances, gambling, making unnecessary purchases, accessing information on criminal activities, such as vandalism; and being seduced by hate group sites.

• To limit Internet access for children, seminar organizers had the following suggestions.

• Filtering software may be installed on computers to monitor children on the Internet.

• Filtering software may provide a list of sites that children are allowed to access, along with a disallowed list, when the software is on. The filtering is controlled by the parents passwords.

• Non-technical solutions include:

• Placing the computer in a common area such as a den or family room where parents can monitor children when they are on the Internet.

• Don’t give your children a private password.

• Do not let children set up accounts and have passwords where they can access the Internet without parental knowledge.

Parents at the seminar were surprised when they realized how much information can be accessed while children are in chat rooms.

“Sharing the Internet with my children will be more of a priority. Setting up filters to keep them out of areas they shouldn’t be in will be immensely helpful,” said Renata Carlson, a mother of two elementary-school-age children.

Also in attendance was Norm Sturm, DuPage High School District 88’s assistant superintendent for educational services.

Sturm said Internet use is monitored at District 88 through user’s agreements signed by parents and students. The district has adopted an extensive policy on the Internet and teachers are responsible for monitoring students.