internet

Avon Middle School parents learn internet dangers from FBI


AVON, Ohio — FBI agents Kelly Liberti and Mark Wilson came to Avon Middle School on Oct. 23 to make parents aware of the dangers lurking on the internet.

Liberti is a 23-year special agent; Wilson is a newer agent on the FBI’s cyber-squad. Both cover cases in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties and are part of the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team.

Together, they painted a rather grim picture of the abductors, perverts and pedophiles just waiting to introduce themselves to area children. Though they said more than once that they were not there to frighten parents, but rather to help them become aware of the dangers, it was difficult not to feel the tension in the room.

The parents paid rapt attention to the charts and graphs that detailed, along with the narrative of actual cases, some details that no parent wants to hear.

Internet predators tend to target children ages 9-15. This age group is the most exploited, according to the agents.

The agents also addressed the parents’ horror as the various internet applications — most of them ones the parents had never even heard of — were described. For all of them, there seems to be almost nothing a parent can do.

But the agents said parents need to educate themselves on these apps and frequently check their kids’ phones to see what they are doing. To do so requires parents to make sure they have the passwords to their kids’ phones.

The days of giving even a teenager a phone, believing it to be a positive instrument for safety, have disappeared with the advent of the thousands of apps that are being developed each and every day, Liberti said.

To put the point on it, she let the parents know that there are predators and pornography on every single app out there.

The two agents also talked about how the predators are looking, in particular, for bored and unhappy kids. And the timeframe in which they contact them is between 3 and 5 p.m. — the after-school hours.

After the presentation, three moms attending commented on the information. Valerie Thompson, Lorie Nagy and Caitlin Schneid, all of Avon, reflected on the information as being “anxiety provoking.”

“Some things I knew, but some I had no idea of,” they said. The three seemed to agree, however, that “in the end, we have no control and we do have to give our kids some trust.”

The mothers said they all need to think about the information before deciding what to do next.

It’s clear from the presentation that parents have to do the work, which is ongoing all the time, to educate themselves about what is out there today (and more of it every day), then relay all appropriate information to their kids so they understand that the seemingly kind stranger who is communicating with them and seems to care so much about them all too often is a predator.

Parents must research, said the agents. One way is to check the ratings in the App Store online for age appropriateness and set privacy settings on their phones so that their kids cannot “friend” anybody, which opens up their phone and their information to potential predators.

Questions or reports of suspicious online activity can be emailed to: kelly.liberti@ic.fbi.gov.



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