Parents beware: It’s a wild, wired world

The Internet holds a wealth of information that children need to advance in life. It has become a valuable tool for educators and parents in unlocking wonders that were not available to earlier generations.

The World Wide Web is the future. It has made the world into one community and enabled people to communicate with each other no matter where they are. Children, in particular, look to technology in order to function well in their daily lives. They compose reports and do their assignments with the help of the Internet. They send text messages using their cellular phones. They get to know about other people’s cultures through chatting and sending e-mail. Entertainment in the form of Internet-based games are rampant. Most parents think that a child is safe if he or she stays at home and tinkers with the computer. After all, what harm would typing in front of a screen do?

Like any powerful apparatus, Internet technology has become subject to abuse by unscrupulous individuals. The potential victims are those who are enamored by it the most – children. The misuse of technology has led to the increasing exploitation of children worldwide. This development has spawned the need for an organized effort to curb cybercrime.

"Way back in 1998, we only had five reported cases. Prior to that, there were no reported incidents. In 1998, we operated the online complaints and assistance center under the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO). It’s an Internet based complaint forum," says Alex Ramos, the country’s only US-trained computer forensic analyst. "We had five different e-mail addresses representing five different districts in Metro Manila. The interesting thing was we received reports even from outside of Metro Manila."

There are now about 75 reported cases of criminal activity on the Net.

A Youth Internet Survey conducted by the University of New Hampshire’s Crime Against Children Research Center in 1999 yielded the following:

• One in five kids received sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet;

• One in 33 received an aggressive sexual solicitation online;

• One in four had an unwanted exposure to pornography; and

• One in 17 was threatened and harassed online.

In Manila, a 2001 survey among 1,295 female teenage respondents (aged 12-17) noted the following:

• 41 percent have lied about their age;

• 48 percent have accidentally opened a pornographic website; and

• 29 percent have received and opened an e-mail that contained pornographic material.

Strangers online

Parents are right to caution children from talking to strangers. However, they forget that many strangers can get to their children online and persuade them to do what they shouldn’t. Kids are also at risk of exposure to sex sites through e-mail and innocuous surfing. Information and education on the real threat that cybercrimes pose should be made available to the public.

The first question would be: What is the nature of these crimes? Are they localized or global?

"With this new, borderless technology that we have, a victim could be somewhere else and the predator could be on the other end of the world," says Ramos, who heads the Manila Electronic National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Crime Task Force that coordinates various electronic crime investigations in the country and in Asia, including investigations into child pornography. He adds that some perpetrators even go as far as traveling to another country to meet with a potential victim.

The next question: What are the acts that we should watch out for? Ramos enumerates four levels of victimization:

• Unwanted exposure to pornography;

• Online harassment (cuss words in e-mails, spreading vile rumors, clogging of systems);

• Online enticement (the predator encourages the victim to perform damaging acts like running away from home or performing sexual acts); and

• Actual physical damage perpetrated by the predator (rape, murder, robbery, etc.).

Tracking down cybercriminals

The good news, Ramos says, is that there is a way of tracking down the criminals and bringing them to court. With the aid of high-tech gadgets and enormous amounts of patience, experts can gather electronic evidence against perpetrators and hand this over to the proper authorities who will then use it to pursue the criminals and put them behind bars.

"Regardless of how they communicated with somebody, they are bound to be discovered. We have the technology to detect (them). Kahit saan ka pang lupalop, if you have committed a crime, we will track you down," says Ramos. "We will know the phone number down to the kind of computer they used, even if they change their names. We will find out where they are. We have electronic codes to recover digital evidence. Even if they erase a file, we will recover it. We will link them up with the tool that they used."

As to jurisdiction over a case, a victim can file a case in his or her location even if the perpetrator is thousands of miles away. The accused will then be tried in the area where stricter laws on cyber-related crimes are applied. For example, a victim from the Philippines can file a complaint in Manila and if the perpetrator is in California, he or she will be tried there.

Given that cyber-related crimes are part of our existence as slaves of the Internet, what can parents do to protect their children and themselves from cyber-criminals?

Educating kids and parents

The Philippine Center for Missing and Exploited Children has taken steps toward educating both children and adults on Internet safety and cyber-ethics. Ramos and his team have started an awareness campaign that targets school children. In La Salle Greenhills, students are made to explore a computer game called "Missing" where they get to become cybercops and hunt down a young boy’s kidnapper. The group, in cooperation with the LSGH Alumni Association’s Big Brother Program, has transformed the school computer lab into a virtual arcade-cum-police investigative unit. The kids get to learn about cyber-safety methods and have fun at the same time.

It’s also important to educate parents on the value of Internet vigilance. Aside from purchasing commercially available filters to shield their children from pornography, they should also be aware of the need to band together as a community and take steps in making Internet access a safe affair. A seminar series called "Parents On Line: Keeping Your Kids Safe in the Net" shall commence in the following weeks, aiming to empower parents and make them realize that they can fight cybercrime against children.

It would also help to report irregularities to the proper authorities. Deleting scandalous e-mail or keeping quiet would not solve the problem. Doing something about them would. Go to www.nbi.doj.gov.ph and click on the link to Cyber Tipline to inform concerned agencies about any unusual cyber behavior you come across.

The Internet is a tool for development and growth. It is all that is good and wonderful and enhances our ability to connect and learn about and from others. If we are armed with the proper knowledge and know where to go for help, we can use this amazing invention to steer our future to great heights.

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For more information about the Parents On Line seminars, call Jobsight Advantage Inc. at (02) 890-9588 to 90; look for Reggie, Ruby or Hazel.