Child Internet Safety
What Should You Do If You Suspect Your
Child Is Communicating With A Sexual Predator On-line?
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Consider talking openly with your child about your suspicions.
Tell them about the dangers of computer-sex offenders.
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Review what is on your child's computer. If you don't know
how, ask a friend, coworker, relative, or other knowledgeable
person. Pornography or any kind of sexual communication can be
a warning sign.
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Use the Caller ID service to determine who is calling your
child. Most telephone companies that offer Caller ID also offer
a service that allows you to block your number from appearing
on someone else's Caller ID. Telephone companies also offer an
additional service feature that rejects incoming calls that you
block. This rejection feature prevents computer-sex offenders
or anyone else from calling your home anonymously.
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Devices can be purchased that show telephone numbers that have
been dialed from your home phone. Additionally, the last number
called from your home phone can be retrieved provided that the
telephone is equipped with a redial feature. You will also need
a telephone pager to complete this retrieval.
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This is done using a numeric-display pager and another phone
that is on the same line as the first phone with the redial feature.
Using the two phones and the pager, a call is placed from the
second phone to the pager. When the paging terminal beeps for
you to enter a telephone number, you press the redial button
on the first [or suspect] phone. The last number called from
that phone will then be displayed on the pager.
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Monitor your child's access to all types of live electronic
communications [i.e., chat rooms, instant messages, Internet
Relay Chat, etc.], and monitor your child's e-mail. Computer-sex
offenders almost always meet potential victims via chat rooms.
After meeting a child on-line, they will continue to communicate
electronically often via e-mail.
Should any of the following situations arise in your household,
via the Internet or on-line service, you should immediately contact
the Wayne County Sheriff’s Internet Crime Unit at 313-875-9676
- Your child or anyone in the household has received child pornography;
- Your child has been sexually solicited by someone who knows
that your child is under 18 years of age;
- Your child has received sexually explicit images from someone
that knows your child is under the age of 18.
If one of these scenarios occurs, keep the computer turned off
in order to preserve any evidence for future law enforcement use.
Unless directed to do so by the law enforcement agency, you should
not attempt to copy any of the images and/or text found on the
computer.
What Can You Do To Minimize The Chances Of An On-line Exploiter
Victimizing Your Child?
- Communicate, and talk to your child about sexual victimization
and potential on-line danger
- Spend time with your children on-line - have them teach you
about their favorite on-line destinations
- Keep the computer in a common room in the house, not in your
child's bedroom - it is much more difficult for a computer-sex
offender to communicate with a child when the computer screen
is visible to a parent or another member of the household
- Utilize parental controls provided by your service provider
and/or blocking software - while electronic chat can be a great
place for children to make new friends and discuss various topics
of interest, it is also prowled by computer-sex offenders - use
of chat rooms, in particular, should be heavily monitored - while
parents should utilize these mechanisms, they should not totally
rely on them
- Always maintain access to your child's on-line account and
randomly check his/her e-mail - be aware that your child could
be contacted through the U.S. Mail - be up front with your child
about your access and reasons why
- Teach your child the responsible use of the resources on-line
- there is much more to the on-line experience than chat rooms
- Find out what computer safeguards are utilized by your child's
school, the public library, and at the homes of your child's
friends - these are all places, outside your normal supervision,
where your child could encounter an on-line predator
- Understand, even if your child was a willing participant in
any form of sexual exploitation, that he/she is not at fault
and is the victim - the offender always bears the complete responsibility
for his or her actions
- Instruct your children:
- to never arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone
they met on- line
- to never upload [post] pictures of themselves onto the
Internet or on-line service to people they do not personally
know
- to never give out identifying information such as their
name, home address, school name, or telephone number
- to never download pictures from an unknown source, as
there is a good chance there could be sexually explicit
images
- to never respond to messages or bulletin board postings
that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, or harassing
- that whatever they are told on-line may or may not be
true
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Safety Tools...
Sheriff of Wayne County
1231 St. Antoine
Detroit, MI 48226
Ph: (313) 224-2222
Fx: (313) 224-2367