A Parent's Guide to Internet Safety

Dear Parent:

Our children are our nation’s most valuable asset. They represent the bright future of our country and hold our hopes for a better Nation. Our children are also the most valuable members of society. Protecting our children against the fear of crime and from becoming victims of crime must be a national priority.

Unfortunately the same advances in computer and telecommunication technology that allow our children to reach out to new sources of knowledge and cultural experiences are also leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and harm by computer-sex offenders.

I hope that this pamphlet helps you to begin to understand the complexities of on-line child exploitation. For further information, please contact your local FBI office or the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children at 1- 800-843-5687.

Louis J. Freeh Director.

While on-line computer exploration be curious, children/adolescents opens a world of possibilities for sometimes use their on-line access to children, expanding their horizons and actively seek out such materials and exposing them to different cultures and individuals. Sex offenders targeting ways of life, they can be exposed to children will use and exploit these dangers as they hit the road exploring characteristics and needs. Some the information highway. There are adolescent children may also be individuals who attempt to sexually attracted to and lured by on-line exploit children through the use of on- offender’s closer to their age who, line services and the Internet. Some of although not technically child these individuals gradually seduce their molesters, may be dangerous. targets through the use of attention, Nevertheless, they have been seduced affection, kindness, and even gifts. and manipulated by a clever offender These individuals are often willing to and do not fully understand or devote considerable amounts of time, recognise the potential danger of these money and energy in this process. They contacts. listen to and empathise with the problems of children. They will be This guide was prepared from actual aware of the latest music, hobbies and investigations involving child victims, as interests of children. These individuals well as investigations where law attempt to gradually lower children’s enforcement officers posed as children. inhibitions by slowly introducing sexual context and content into their Further information on protecting your conversations. There are other child on-line may be found in the individuals, however, who immediately National Centre for Missing and engage in sexually explicit conversation Exploited Children’s . . . with children. Some offenders primarily collect and trade child-pornographic Child Safety on the Information images, while others seek face-to-face Highway and meetings with children via on-line Teen Safety on the Information contacts. It is important for parents to Highway pamphlets. understand that children can be indirectly victimised through conversation, ie. “chat,” as well as the transfer of sexually explicit information and material. Computer-sex offenders may also be evaluating children they come in contact with on-line for future face-to-face contact and direct victimisation. Parents and children should remember that a computer-sex offender can be any age or sex – the person does not have to fit the caricature of a dirty, unkempt, older man wearing a raincoat to be someone who could harm a child.

Children, especially adolescents, are sometimes interested in and curious about sexuality and sexually explicit material. They may be moving away from the total control of parents and seeking to establish new relationships outside their family. Because they may What are Signs That Your Child can be very cumbersome. Most want to Might Be At Risk On-Line? talk to the children on the telephone. They often engage in “phone sex” with 1. Your child spends large amounts of the children and often seek to set up an time on-line, especially at night. actual meeting for real sex.

Most children that fall victim to While a child may be hesitant to give computer-sex offenders spend large out his/her home phone number, the amounts of time on-line, particularly in computer-sex offenders will give out chat rooms. They may go on-line after heirs. With Caller ID, they can readily dinner and on the weekends. They may find out the child’s phone number. be latchkey kids whose parents have Some computer-sex offenders have told them to stay home after school. even obtained toll-free 800 numbers, They go on-line to chat with friends, so that their potential victims can call make new friends, pass time, and them without their parents finding out. sometimes look for sexually explicit Others will tell the child to call collect. information. While much of the Both of these methods result in the knowledge and experience gained may computer-sex offender being able to be valuable, parents should consider find out the child’s phone number. monitoring the amount of time spent on-line. 4. Your child receives mail, gifts, or packages from someone you don’t Children on-line are at the greatest risk know. during the evening hours. While offenders are on-line around the clock, As part of the seduction process, it is most work during the day and spend common for offenders to send letters, their evenings on-line trying to locate photographs, and all manner of gifts to and lure children or seeking their potential victims. Computer-sex pornography. offenders have even sent plane tickets in order for the child to travel across 2. You find pornography on your child’s the country to meet them. computer. 5. Your child turns the computer Pornography is often used in the sexual monitor off or quickly changes the victimisation of children. Sex offenders screen on the monitor when you often supply their potential victims with come into the room. pornography as a means of opening sexual discussions and for seduction. A child looking at pornography images Child pornography may be used to or having sexually explicit show the child victim that sex between conversations does not want you to see children and adults is “normal.” Parents it on the screen. should be conscious of the fact that a child may hide the pornographic files on 6. Your child becomes withdrawn from diskettes from them. This may be the family. especially true if the computer is used by other family members. Computer-sex offenders will work very hard at driving a wedge between a child 3. Your child receives phone calls from and their family or at exploiting the men you don’t know or is making relationship. They will accentuate any calls, sometimes long distance, to minor problems at home that the child numbers you don’t recognise. might have. Children may also become withdrawn after sexual victimisation. While talking to a child victim on-line is a thrill for a computer-sex offender, it 7. Your child is using an on-line telephone pager to complete this account belonging to someone else. retrieval.

Even if you don’t subscribe to an on- This is done using a numeric-display line service or Internet service, your pager and another phone that is on child may meet an offender while on- the same line as the first phone with line at a friend’s house or the library. the redial feature. Most computers come preloaded with on-line and/or Internet software. Using the two phones and the Computer-sex offenders will sometimes pager, a call is placed from the provide potential victims with a second phone to the pager. When computer account for communications the paging terminal beeps for you to with them. enter a telephone number, you press the redial button on the first What Should You Do If You Suspect (or suspect) phone. The last number Your Child Is Communicating With called from that phone will then be A Sexual Predator On-line? displayed on the pager

1. Consider talking openly with your 5. Monitor your child’s access to all child about your suspicions. Tell types of live electronic them about the dangers of communications (ie, chat rooms, computer-sex offenders. instant messages, Internet relay chat, etc) and monitor your child’s 2. Review what is on your child’s e-mail. Computer-sex offenders computer. If you don’t know how, almost always meet potential ask a friend, coworker, relative, or victims via chat rooms. After other knowledgeable person. meeting a child on-line, they will Pornography or any kind of sexual continue to communicate communication can be a warning electronically often via email. sign. 6. Should any of the following 3. Use the Caller ID service to situations arise in your household, determine who is calling your child. via the internet or on-line service, Most telephone companies that offer you should immediately contact your Caller ID also offer a service that local or state law enforcement allows you to block your number agency, the FBI, and the National from appearing on someone else’s Centre for Missing and Exploited Caller ID. Telephone companies also Children: offer an additional service feature that rejects incoming calls that you a) Your child or anyone in the block. This rejection feature household has received child prevents computer-sex offenders or pornography; anyone else from calling your home b) Your child has been sexually anonymously. solicited by someone who knows that your child is under 18 years of 4. Devices can be purchased that show age; telephone numbers that have been c) Your child has received sexually dialled from your home phone. explicit images from someone that Additionally, the last number called knows your child is under the age of from your home phone can be 18. retrieved provided that the telephone is equipped with a redial If one of these scenarios occurs, keep feature. You will also need a the computer turned off in order to preserve any evidence for future law enforcement use. Unless directed to do utilise these mechanisms, they so by the law enforcement agency, you should not totally rely on them. should not attempt to copy any of the images and/or text found on the 5. Always maintain access to your computer. child’s on-line account and randomly check his/her email. 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.

6. Teach your child the responsible use of the resources on-line. There is much more to the on-line experience than chat rooms.

7. Find out what computer safeguards are utilised by your child’s school, the public library, and at the homes of your child’s friends. These are places, outside you normal supervision, where your child could

encounter an on-line predator. What Can You Do To Minimise The 8. Understand, even if your child was a Chances Of An On-line Exploiter willing participant in any from of Victimising Your Child? sexual exploitation, that he/she is not at fault; he/she is the victim. 1. Communicate, and talk to your child The offender always bears the about sexual victimisation and complete responsibility for his or her potential on-line danger. actions.

2. Spend time with your children on- 9. Instruct your children: line. Have them teach you about their favourite on-line destinations. a. to never arrange face-to-face

meeting with someone they met on- 3. Keep the computer in a common line; room in the house, not in your b. to never upload (post) pictures of child’s bedroom. It is more difficult themselves onto the internet or on- for a computer-sex offender to line services to people they do not communicate with a child when the personally know; computer screen is visible to a c. to never give out identifying parent or another member of the information such as their name, household. home address, school name or telephone number; 4. Utilise parental controls provided by d. to never download pictures from an your service provider and/or unknown source, as there is a good blocking software. While electronic chance there could be sexually chat can be a great place for explicit images; children to make new friends and e. to never respond to messages or discuss various topics of interest, it bulletin board postings that are is also prowled by computer-sex suggestive, obscene, belligerent, or offenders. Use of chat rooms, in harassing; particular, should be heavily f. that whatever they are told on-line monitored. While parents should may or may not be true.

Frequently Asked Questions: Helpful Definitions

1. My child has received an e-mail Internet – An immense, global advertising for a pornographic network that connects computers via website, what should I do? telephone lines and/or fibre networks to storehouses of electronic information. Generally, advertising for an adult, With only a computer, a modem, a pornographic website that is sent to telephone line and a service provider, an e-mail address does not violate people from all over the world can federal law or the current laws of communicate and share information most states. In some states it may with little more than a few keystrokes. be a violation of law if the sender knows the recipient is under the age Bulletin Board System (BBSs) – of 18. Such advertising can be Electronic networks of computers that reported to your service provider are connected by a central computer and, if known, the service provider set up and operated by a system of the originator. It can also be administrator or operator and are reported to your state and federal distinguishable from the Internet by legislators, so they can be made their “dial-up” accessibility. BBS users aware of the extent of the problem. link their individual computers to the central BBS computer by a modem 2. Is any service safer then the others? which allows them to post messages, read messages left by others, trade Sex offenders have contacted information, or hold direct children via most of the major on- conversations. Access to a BBS can, line services and the Internet. The and often is, privileged and limited to most important factors in keeping those users who have access privileges your child safe on-line are the granted by the system operator. utilisation of appropriate blocking software and/or parental controls, Commercial On-line Service (COS) – along with open, honest discussions Examples of COSs are America on-line, with your child, monitoring his/her Prodigy, CompuServe and Microsoft on-line activity, and following the Network, which provide access to their tips in this pamphlet. service for a fee. COSs generally offer limited access to the Internet as part of 3. Should I just forbid my child from their total service package. going on-line? Internet Service Provider (ISP) – There are dangers in every part of Examples of ISPs are Erols, Concentric our society. By educating your and Netcom. These services offer children to these dangers and taking direct, full access to the Internet at a appropriate steps to protect them, flat, monthly rate and often provide they can benefit from the wealth of electronic-mail service for their information now available on-line. customers. ISPs often provide space in their servers for their customers to maintain World Wide Web (WWW) sites. Not all ISPs are commercial enterprises. Educational, government and nonprofit organisations also provide Internet access to their members.

Public Chat Rooms – Created, maintained, listed and monitored by the COS and other public domain systems posting is like an open letter and is such as Internet Relay Chat. A number capable of having attachments, such as of customers can be in public chat graphic image files (GIFs). Anyone rooms at any given time, which are accessing the newsgroup can read the monitored for illegal activity and even postings, take copies of posted items, appropriate language by systems or post responses. Each newsgroup can operators (SYSOP). Some public chat hold thousands of postings. Currently, rooms are monstered more frequently there are over 29,000 public than others, depending on the COS and newsgroups and that number is the type of chat room. Violators can be growing daily. Newsgroups are both reported to the administrators of the public and/or private. There is no listing system (at America On-line they are of private newsgroups. A user of private referred to as terms of service [TOS]) newsgroups has to be invited into the which can revoke user privileges. The newsgroup and be provided with the public chat rooms usually cover a broad newsgroup’s address. range of topics such as entertainment, sports, game rooms, children only, etc.

Electronic Mail (E-mail) – A function of BBSs, COSs and ISPs which provides for the transmission of messages and FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION files between computers over a communications network similar to Offices of Crimes Against Children mailing a letter via the postal service. E-mail is stored on a server, where it 935 Pennsylvania Ave, NW will remain until the addressee retrieves Washington, D.C. 20535 it. Anonymity can be maintained by the sender by predetermining what the Ph: (202) 324-3666 receiver will see as the “from” address. Another way to conceal one’s identity is National Centre for Missing and to use an “anonymous remailer,” which Exploited Children is a service that allows the user to send Cyber Tipline: an e-mail message repackaged under www.missingkids.com/cybertip the remailer’s own header, stripping off 1 800 843 5678 the originator’s name completely.

Chat – Real-time text conversation between users in a chat room with no expectation of privacy. All conversation is accessible by all individuals in the chat room while the conversation is taking place.

Instant Messages – Private, real-time text conversation between two users in a chat room.

Instant Relay Chat (IRC) – Real-time text conversation similar to public and/or private chat rooms on COS.

Usenet (Newsgroups) – Like a giant, cork bulletin board where users post messages and information. Each