Social media challenges raised
Officials from Butler School District and the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General warned parents about the dangers of social media at a program Wednesday night.
The sparsely-attended program included information on everything from how to set up accounts on popular social media apps like Twitter and Facebook, to statistics on the state's ongoing battle against online predators and cyberharassment.
The state attorney general's office formed a specialized unit in 2005 to pursue child predators, including those who use online message boards and social media apps to pursue potential victims.
Jack Ogden, who works in the AG's Erie office, said that arrests of child predators have increased by more than 750 percent since 2012. In 2015 the state made 158 arrests in child predator cases; it's made more than 800 overall since 2005.
Many of those cases involved adolescents and teenagers, Ogden said. According to the AG's office one in five girls and one in 10 boys reported being sexually assaulted before adulthood. One in five kids between the ages of 10 and 17 say they've received unwanted sexual advances online.
“That's why it's so important for parents to continue to educate themselves on these apps,” Ogden said. “Technology is not going anywhere anytime soon.”
The most popular social media apps for teenagers each encompass hundreds of millions of users, he said. An app like Snapchat — where users can exchange photos and videos that disappear shortly after being viewed — has 150 million active daily users, Ogden said. The photo-sharing app Instagram boasts 500 million monthly users; and Facebook — the undisputed king of social media — had 1.8 billion active users as of September 2015.
With all of those people online and sharing photos, videos and information of all kinds, it can be a treacherous place for young people, Ogden said. To complicate matters, most social media apps use location services that can help potential predators stalk young people online.
Ogden's best advice for parents was to stay involved and force the conversation about social media with their children. In addition, he recommended parents familiarize themselves with how to adjust the privacy settings on their children's' social media accounts. Knowing how to block users or restrict who can see information online can help keep students safe, he said.
“I'm sure that, for most of you, your children are always avoiding discussing what they're doing online,” Ogden said. “We want you to be there, and be open and honest with your kids, so they're open and honest with you.”
School district officials said parents shouldn't fool themselves into thinking that cyberbullying and online harassment isn't a problem here. The district deals with the issue almost every day.
Sexting — the practice of sending and receiving lewd messages or images — is a persistent problem as well. Jason Huffman, the district's sixth-grade principal, told parents that he's never had a year without at least one district investigation into a sexting incident. Often the investigations can result in arrests and criminal charges being filed, he said.
“I've talked with way too many parents who have had to have conversations with their kids at ages that are way too young,” Huffman said.
The district recommends that parents use “frequent and spontaneous” reviews of what their children are doing online and with their smart phones. But Huffman and school counselor Alecia Mowrey said that most parents don't do that, and acknowledged that the process can be time-consuming.
Mowrey said that it's important for parents to remember that, even if their children don't have mobile devices or social media profiles themselves, they can still end up having their images put online by friends that do.
“I see kids that say 'I don't have a phone, I didn't do that.' But their friends do,” Mowrey said.
