Cyber-safety: experts try to arm students with facts
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NORTHAMPTON - When it comes to Internet safety, parents are trying to teach their children a subject in which the young ones have much more expertise.
At JFK Middle School Monday, staff brought in the big guns to educate students about the potential dangers at their fingertips.
Funded by a $45,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation, Cyber Safety Week, a series of seminars put on by Verizon and online safety education leader i-SAFE will include assemblies in schools in Northampton, Pittsfield, North Adams, Northfield and West Springfield.
"When I think about the Internet it's almost like going to a new neighborhood," Mayor Clare Higgins told about 200 students seated on plastic lunch chairs in the school cafeteria. "You kind of want to have a map, you want to know the language, the places that are safe to go to and the places that are not safe."
The two-hour assembly included video clips, student skits, and lectures from police, as experts aimed to teach middle schoolers how to keep safe from online bullies and predators. Colored disco lights, pop music and video clips of teen Internet users from Manhattan to Hawaii grabbed the attention of 200 city students in seventh grade.
Superintendent Isabelina Rodriguez, school principal Lesley Wilson and city police Detective Corey Robinson also attended Monday's kickoff.
Though the assembly had been scheduled a couple of months ago, the timing seemed opportune given the investigation into the suicide of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince, who students say was bullied online before her Jan. 14 death. Though not spoken of explicitly, Robinson made reference to South Hadley's trauma.
"Recently, we've had some tragedies occur, especially close to home, that included online bullying," Robinson said.
He encouraged students to reach out to trusted adults if they are uncomfortable with any online interactions or if they feel they are being bullied.
"Unfortunately these crimes aren't coming to our attention," said Robinson. "We can't keep you safe if we don't know there's a problem."
Cyberbullying presents a different level of cruelty, far more damaging than the kind of schoolyard taunts an older generation experienced, because it allows Internet users to inflict pain on others without being able to see the results, according to Jonathan King, director of professional development and outreach for i-SAFE.
A component of the assembly was to show videos that illustrate what happens to young people when they aren't safe on the Internet and when they bully their peers online.
One video told the heartwrenching story of a 13-year-old boy from Connecticut who hanged himself in the bathroom because he was bullied. His peers called him "gay" at school, so he retreated to the Internet to build relationships and help ease his pain. But it didn't help. Girls pretended to like him online only to reject and embarrass him in person, according to his parents.
"Cyberbullying is more emotionally devastating," King said after the lights turned on and students sat at quiet attention listening to King.
As the amount of time youth spend online increases, so too does the number of online victims, King said. King asked students why they use the Internet. Answers ranged from posting photos and videos and playing games to shopping and looking up song lyrics to online chatting, social networking and researching.
Students nodded their heads and raised their hands when asked if they lie about their age online, if they download music illegally and if they "friend" people they don't know. Their answers didn't surprise King, but did concern him.
"It's important that you know the people on your Facebook and MySpace accounts in real life," King said. He warned that meeting someone online doesn't count as "knowing" them, especially because online predators lie about who they really are. Online predators hurt children by creating a false sense of intimacy through the screen and inviting children to meet with them off-screen.
In the tragic case of 12-year-old Christina Ann Long, a 24-year-old man from Connecticut claimed to be 18 when he instant-messaged her about their shared interest in cars. The instant messages progressed to emails and phone calls, until they planned to meet at a mall. This story was also told in a video. Christina's mother explained how she waited for her daughter outside the mall, at first with anger because her daughter was late, and then with fear because she was nowhere in sight. Video clips of the mall escalator rolled as Christina's mother spoke through her tears about the worry she felt for her daughter. In the end, Christina's predator killed her.
In a fictional video, students watched a young boy wait outside school to meet with a young girl he had been talking to online. A middle-aged man in his truck asked the boy if he was looking for somebody, claiming the somebody was his daughter and he would take the boy to her. The boy got in the man's truck and, after suspecting danger, opened the door and rolled out of it. The man chased the boy back to school.
Children in the JFK auditorium sat on the edge of their seats as they watched the chase. The drums beat faster and the truck tires screeched louder. Suspense grew even more when the young boy found his school doors locked, with the man only a few feet behind him. He found and entered and an unlocked door, the predator still close behind him.
The boy ran into the school's main office and took refuge under a desk, where he called 911. This video ends with police arresting the predator. But just before the arrest, the predator found and grabbed the boy - a move that startled students so much some jumped from their seats.
Catherine Baum can be reached at cbaum@gazettenet.com.
