Program to protect kids online

Program to protect kids online

By Amy Frazier
The [Lynchburg, Va.] News & Advance

Most parents would go wide-eyed at the idea of their child alone in a room with a boyfriend or girlfriend, yet they don't think twice when it's a room full of complete strangers.

That's who is on the Internet with them.

When the average 13- to 17-year-old is on the Internet seven hours a day, it's usually unsupervised time, said Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown.

"Parents let their children go up to their bedroom (and get on the Internet) for five to seven hours and think they're safe. Yet, they would absolutely flip if their child was on the phone for five to seven hours," Brown said.

Brookville Middle School is hosting a program for parents called, "Everything You Want to Know About the Internet, but Your Kid Won't Tell You," which will guide them through steps to protect their computer-using
kids. The program is open to the public and begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Brookville Middle School's 300-seat auditorium.

Tom McDaniel, president of Brookville Middle School's Parent Teacher Organization, recommends that parents not bring their children to the program.

"This is adult material. It's targeted for the parents," he said.

McDaniel asked members of the Blue Ridge Thunder Program to speak to parents after realizing he wasn't armed to protect his kids on the Internet.

"The kids have us seriously out-gunned on the Internet," he said. "I was upset that I wasn't savvy enough to know what was going on."

The federally funded Blue Ridge Thunder program was designed to crack down on sexual predators who prey on kids through the Internet.

"This is the same as when they trolled the parks to get into positions of trust with children 10 to 12 years ago," Brown said. "Then it was a small pool of children. Now you have 45 million children on the Internet."

Brown suggests putting the computer in a family area because filter programs are not a coverall.

"Kids know how to get around them anyway," he said.

Set limits on when and how your children use it, he said. Parents can set up passwords so that their kids can only use the Internet when parents log them on, he said.

McDaniel said they'll offer some suggestions for policing the Internet that kids shouldn't know you know.

"Some kids would cringe," McDaniel said.

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