by RJ Parker
Social media has such a phenomenal presence that it has become an indispensable part of the lives of several law enforcement officers. Use of social media brings both rewards and risks to the law enforcement officers and their departments. Any misuse could lead to criminal cases becoming compromised. However, the benefits of using social media channels outweigh any disadvantages they may present. Social media sites have grown exponentially. The Institute for Criminal Justice Education has reported that almost eighty percent of law enforcement officers held a profile or an account on social media channels. Almost all of them have the potential of using social media for crime prevention, investigation, and building up of public relations.
This mass jungle of electronic information has shown it can help law enforcement officers in apprehending fugitives, singling out all the suspects, linking suspects to gangs, and presenting any evidence of criminal activity.
Chapter 35: Internet Safety
How much of our lives do we spend planning for safety? From a very early age, we begin to learn the value of living life carefully. Toddlers learn not to touch things that will hurt them. We teach our children not to talk to strangers or to play with fire. When they grow a little older, it’s time to explain to children the dangers of the street—how to look both ways before crossing the road, the meaning of streetlights, and how to ride their bikes in a safe manner. We teach them how to swim for the sake of water safety, to stay away from thin ice on the lake, and under no circumstances are they to answer the door to strangers when they are home alone. As time passes, children enter their teens, learn how to handle power tools in shop class, take driver’s education classes to ensure safety behind the wheel of a car, and learn not to drink and drive all with the purpose of living life safely. Each generation brings with it new social settings, innovative technology, and a new set of rules to learn.
Over the decades, the rules have changed gradually, even foreseeably. Traditionally, it has been the responsibility of the adults in society to train younger generations about technology and safety on the journey to becoming productive citizens. With the invention of this mind-boggling phenomenon called the internet, though, all of the long-held, tried and true rules and strategies on which we have so comfortably relied upon have changed. There are new ways of doing things now that never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined would have been the case thirty years ago. If that weren’t startling enough, the pace at which the internet continues to evolve is equally staggering. In fact, young people are often far more adept within the internet environment than are their parents…. Now there’s an unsettling thought! The average person isn’t even able to fully define what the internet is or how it originated and evolved. It could quite feasibly be described as this abstract, unimaginably massive, global setting where anyone and everyone can frequent without entirely understanding what they are doing. It is possible to find the answers to practically anything a mind could fathom, yet the fact remains that most of us really don’t understand the full implications of our presence on the internet. How can we continue our societal duty and tradition of safe living when we don’t even wholly comprehend what the internet is or the extent of its power? How can we, therefore, protect ourselves and our children in such a setting?
Educating ourselves would seem to be the first line of defense. It is said that in order to conquer something with the intention of bringing it into submission, one first must understand it. That’s a fancy way of saying that to be safe on the internet, you must first learn what it is and how to make it work for you, as opposed to against you. It seems that the internet was an inevitable and reasonable progression following the invention of amazing technology such as the telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and computer. Imagine how society reacted at the introduction of each of these historic concepts. Today, we take for granted that great minds of our time will simply continue in this progressive direction. The first sign of the internet appeared in 1962 when Mr. J.C.R. Licklider of MIT foresaw “a globally interconnected set of computers through which everyone could quickly access data and programs from any site.” At an extremely basic level of understanding, the first internet-like structure began in 1969 with the creation of the ARPANET (a network created by the United States Defense Advanced Research Project Agency), which linked numerous universities and research centers together. The technology continued to evolve and in 1974, computer researchers developed technology that allowed computers to “talk to each other.” The World Wide Web was created in the 1990s as global networking continued to grow. Today, the internet is a global network of millions of computers with more than 100 countries linked in the exchange of information and nearly three billion users as of 2014. What does all this mean? It means that access to all kinds of information is at your fingertips, as well as the tips of billions of other fingers. It means that YOUR information may also be accessed by strangers if you don’t take specific precautions.
So, who is at risk? Anyone who accesses the internet, of course. Children, youth, adults, and seniors are all targets on the internet when they go online unprepared. Obviously, each of those age groups is accessing the internet with different goals in mind. Children are usually online to play games and watch videos of their favorite shows or movies. Young people go online to meet up with their friends in chat rooms, Facebook, or Twitter, for gaming opportunities, YouTube, Netflix and so much more. They also know how to surf the net to help with homework assignments, study for exams, and research job opportunities and post-secondary schools. Adults use the internet for banking and financial reasons, to research business contacts, as a tool in their jobs, for leisure surfing and social networking, for online courses, blogging, and so on. The list is endless. And then there are seniors. Seniors are accessing the internet more and more. Their interests seem to lie in researching health issues, government websites, for financial activities, such as banking and investments, leisure surfing, hobbies, blog writing, and even social networking. Because of the vastly different uses of the internet from age group to age group, online safety will require different strategies.
Children are such trusting individuals. Unfortunately, the days where our safety advice consisted of “Don’t talk to strangers,” “Don’t eat sweets before supper,” and “Look both ways before crossing the street” are over. Most children have access to the internet at least some of the time. Their lack of life experience usually leaves them ill prepared for those inappropriate sites that inevitably pop up online. Further, they tend to think they are invincible and that no one could ever hurt them. They don’t realize the seriousness of the existence of predators that lurk online, waiting for opportunities to lure them in. Parents do have options for protecting their children and must stick to very specific online rules. Here are some rules to help:
· Place your computer in a visible area of the house in order to monitor what sites your children are visiting.
· Monitor the internet history of the computer regularly to check on web addresses your children have accessed. This includes ALL internet-capable devices at their disposal (iPads, iPhones, etc.).
· Establish a “no browser history erase” rule: break the rule = no more internet use.
· Choose one of the kid-safe search engines as your default setting on your web browser page:
o www.kidoz.net/plus/index.html (for four-year-olds)
o www.kids.aol.com/KOL/1/KOLJr (for five-year-olds)
o www.kidinfo.com (for six-year-olds)
o www.askforkids.com (for six-year-olds)
o www.kidsclick.org (for eight-year-olds)
o www.zoodles.com (for eight-year-olds)
o www.sweetsearch.com (for thirteen-year-olds)
o www.scholar.google.com (for fifteen-year-olds)
· Establish and regularly review a set of family rules for internet use, such as:
o Appropriate time of day to be online.
o Amount of time to use the computer per session.
o Always hav
e parental consent to go online.
o Create a list of off-limits sites.
o Kids must immediately report to parents any inappropriate sites they accidentally access.
· Limit instant messaging and emailing to a parent-approved ‘buddy list.’
· Surf the internet together to establish a bookmarked list of sites based on your child’s interests.
· Know your child’s usernames and passwords.
· Discuss with your child the difference between private and public information. Point out the dangers of providing a home address or phone number, or even revealing one’s hometown. This is when you should be discussing the existence of online predators and how they operate:
o Someone posing as a child could actually be an adult trying to gain information from you.
o Online predators will often lie to you in an effort to gain your trust… They’ll agree with you on pretty much anything to connect with you.
o They will ask for your name, age, gender, and other specific information about yourself.
o A fake online name is best, as opposed to your real name. At the very most, use only your first name. No one should be asking you for more information than that.
o Never enter your real name, age, address, or phone number online. Predators can use that information to locate other personal information.
o Be very careful if someone online asks to meet with you in person. Tell an adult immediately! DO NOT MEET SOMEONE YOU MET ONLINE IN PERSON!
o The internet is not a place to make new friends. Online relationships can be dangerous. (Establish a rule where your children must report to you any new people they have met online and monitor conversations closely.)
· Discuss with your child the realities of pornography and, most important, child pornography. They need to understand that child pornography is ALWAYS ILLEGAL and must be reported for their safety, as well as the safety of other children.
· Discuss the concept of cyberbullying: what it is, how it happens, and how to conduct oneself online. Explain to your child that gossiping, harassment, humiliation, threats, etc., constitute cyberbullying, which is ILLEGAL. Explain the repercussions of such online activity: how it affects the victims, retaliation measures taken by the victims, legal implications, and how death has resulted in certain cases.
· If your child is the victim of cyberbullying, encourage him or her to confide in you. Do not overreact. Instead, discuss the situation with your child to determine the seriousness of the incident. Is it simply annoying contact, or does it involve imminent emotional and/or physical abuse? You can alert your child’s school to be watchful of bullying activity involving your child and ask them to take particular note of how your child is handling the situation. You can also inform your family physician and clergy of what is happening and seek guidance from those perspectives. Above all, TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY. Cyberbullying can result in irreparable, long-lasting harm. Refer to Beyond Sticks and Stones: Bullying by RJ Parker for more information.
Adults, on the other hand, should know better, yet considering this mysterious environment in which we now find ourselves, it’s not surprising that most of us really don’t know better. We have our own set of safety precautions to follow that are more suited to the online risks we face, but without educating ourselves on the matter, how can we implement said precautions? One area of risk for adults revolves around identity theft, which is why the utmost care must be taken to avoid revealing personal information online. One statistic reveals that victims of identity theft lost a total of $7 billion in 2012 alone. Businesses are also at risk losing an estimated $44 billion in that same year…. These are staggering numbers. It can be an arduous task to restore your identity and repair your reputation. What’s worse is that once your identity has been stolen, you are even more of a target for future theft because so much of your identification doesn’t change. Yes, you can cancel credit cards and bank accounts, change your address, change usernames and passwords, but your name, age, birthdate, place of birth, mother’s maiden name, and so on will not change. This information has already been discovered and recorded by a criminal element with the potential to be reused at a later date. As such, you must make a conscientious effort to protect yourself. All is not lost though. There are various measures available to protect yourself when online:
· Research the privacy settings of social networking sites.
· Ask family and friends to examine your social networking sites, watching for personal information or inappropriate photos or videos that you may have missed.
· Do not share your usernames and passwords with anyone.
· Respect yourself and others while online.
· Everyone over the age of fourteen should be monitoring their credit history on a regular basis. You can request a credit history report from a number of sources or even hire a credit monitoring service to keep an eye on things for you.
· Request a credit disclosure from one of the three national credit reporting organizations: TransUnion, Equifax, or Experian. These three organizations created AnnualCreditReport.com, which is a service to help consumers obtain a free annual report.
· Decide whether or not you want your personal information accessible in online directory searches. You can limit access to your information or keep it private entirely, usually for a fee called a “privacy tax.”
· Obviously, if your identity has been stolen, contact all of your banking and financial institutions immediately, as well as your insurance company and local law enforcement. Remember to freeze your credit with all three of the preceding credit reporting organizations.
· If damaging images or videos of you have been exposed online, contacting the website where they appeared will likely result in their removal and possibly even disciplinary measures for the offender.
· It is also a good idea to notify family and friends of the theft in the event that they might be affected as well.
· Keep your usernames, passwords, and PINs secure and change them often. Never use the same username and password for multiple sites, as this will have a domino effect throughout your accounts if one of the accounts is compromised.
· When creating a new password, use a combination of letters (both uppercase and lowercase), numbers, and symbols. The more complicated you make the combination, the more difficult it will be for criminals to decode it.
· PIN numbers should not be phone numbers, birthdates, or sequential or repeating numbers.
· Social networks are open to the whole world. Be careful not to include personal information on your profile and never accept friend requests from strangers.
· When using public computers (at the library, internet cafes, etc.), do not conduct identity sensitive business such as online banking, do not save usernames and passwords, ALWAYS clear your browser history, and be aware of anyone looking over your shoulder.
· Ensure that your computer is firewall-, antivirus-, and malware-protected. There is a variety of software programs available for purchase or as free downloads that serve this purpose.
Senior presence on the internet is a rapidly growing trend and, as with any other group, requires the practice of online safety. It is inaccurate to stereotype all older people as seniors who are scared to use technology. In fact, many seniors are avid internet users. They surf, blog, research, take courses, pay their bills, and do so much more online. On the other hand, there are those seniors who are more traditional and still uncomfortable with how to operate certain types of technology. For some, the concept of a computer is a significant source of confusion, and the internet is unimaginable. They, too, must learn the new rules of this information age that will keep them safe while enjoying the fascination of the internet.
The internet can open up a whole new dimension in life for seniors who often become isolated and out of touch as they age. Our jobs, careers, and professions are frequently a defining force in our lives. Once retirement becomes a reality, seniors can feel a need to contin
ue to be productive. They miss the intellectual stimulation and challenges of their work life. That fast, relentless pace of working, raising a family, of never having enough hours in the day can eventually become too many unfulfilling hours with not enough to do. More and more seniors are discovering the world of the internet where virtually anything they’ve ever wanted to know is just a few clicks away. It has become a rich intellectual source where they can continue to learn and grow as individuals.