Keeping your kids safe when they're online

Published Thursday, October 22, 2009

Earlier this week, Lt. Bill Hough of the Tallapoosa County Sheriff’s Department shared a frightening story with students at Alexander City Middle School.

Hough said when he was posing as a 14-year-old girl online, he was contacted and befriended by a man who eventually set up a face-to-face meeting. When Hough showed up for the meeting at a bus station, he discovered the man bearing roses – as well as a hotel key card, bleach, garbage bags, duct tape, a machete and clothesline. It doesn’t take a genius to deduce what could have happened to a real 14-year-old girl in that situation.

The Internet has changed our world forever. Children these days are exposed to the seedier side of humanity like never before – a threat parents did not face when they were growing up. For generations, caring parents have taught their children about the danger of talking to strangers. But many parents today don’t “talk” in the same ways their children do, by texting on cell phones or chatting on social networks.

Today, when contact with strangers is as easy as writing this sentence and hitting “send” on any number of digital devices, it’s critically important to know who’s reaching out to you, and what their motives are.

Timothy Birt, executive director of the Tri-County Children’s Advocacy Center who also spoke to the ACMS students, summed up the problem when he said, “It’s not a matter of if a child sees something inappropriate, it’s a matter of when.”

We applaud the work of “online” law enforcement officers and organizations like the Tri-County Children’s Advocacy Center that help educate our children about the dangers of befriending strangers on the Internet. And we encourage parents to get up to speed on this new danger and frankly discuss it with their children.

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