Internet Safety with Cyber Education Consultants

BY KRIS KELLEY RIVERA

Lori Getz understands the ins and outs of the Internet.  She’s made it her life for the last seven years, and her business for the last two.  She knows what you should do, and what you definitely should NOT do when you are online.  Her mission, she says is “to help bridge the gap between this generation of internet users and their parents.”

Getz has a Master of Arts in Educational Technology, and is the founder of Cyber Education Consultants.  She spends the majority of her time lecturing elementary to high school students on how to be safe on the Internet: from protecting their identity, to protecting themselves from stalkers or bullies. She also speaks to parent groups- teaching parents what they need to know, and be aware of when it comes to their children’s computer usage. Whether its on Club Penguin, Facebook, or XBOX Live, she can tell you potential dangers and how to stay safe.

Getz draws upon her personal experience as a teacher, an aunt, and a mother, for her understanding of children and how this translates in this digital age.  She stresses that she doesn’t want parents to be afraid of the Internet, only to be aware how their children are using it.  As she puts it, “parenting is parenting, whether it’s out on the streets or in cyber space.”  Getz says parents need to ask their children questions about where they are going on the Internet.

To drive the point home she uses an anecdote about her father. She says when growing up her father had four questions he asked her before she was able to leave the house: 1. What are you wearing? 2.  Where are you going? 3. Who are you going with? 4. What time will you be home?

These are the same questions we need answered each time our kids go online. ‘What you are wearing?’ refers to their screen name.  She warns kids and adults alike about using actual names as email addresses, or screen names that are overly provocative, or draw attention. Getz insists everyone should have at least two email accounts, and use one for close friends and family.  Parents, she says, need to know what sites their children are visiting, who they are talking with, and how much time they are spending on the online.

A common mistake that children make, she explains, is to befriend “friends of friends.”  This occurs frequently on social networking sites, where children are more concerned with collecting friends, then with knowing who they are.  She reminds kids “friends of friends are actually strangers” and warns against the practice.  Getz says kids give away far too much information on social networks than they understand.  By posting pictures and tagging friends and locations, they leave a trail leading right to themselves.

Five years ago, she began lecturing with the FBI’s “Safe Team” in order to bring the most important information from law enforcement to students and parents.  As Getz says, it is NOT the child predator that comes to your house and snatches your child. What happens is, she says, “predators groom our children, or even us, by striking up friendships, and developing trust.” Often predators gain this trust by using the information that kids eagerly give out online.  Later, the predator can ask to meet face-to-face, and children go to them.  At this point, kids often believe it is someone they already have a relationship with.

Another issue with kids online is cyber bulling which can be done in three different ways:  sending mean or threatening messages, pretending to be somebody online other than yourself, or posting videos or pictures of someone else.  Getz warns that the consequences can be serious and that children can be prosecuted for things that once may have been regarded as a childhood prank.  Photos and videos on phones, and the ability to upload them immediately make a dangerous situation for kids not fully understanding the consequences of their actions.

Getz says kids should always think twice before posting something, “ if you wouldn’t put it on a billboard on Sunset Boulevard, you shouldn’t post it online.” Sharing passwords is another big problem between children, and she tells kids to “never ever share passwords with anyone other than their parents.”

In addition to safety concerns, Getz says everyone needs to realize that online there really isn’t any expectation of privacy. Today employers and school admission offices are using social networking sites to check up on students or employees.  Even though something might be years old, she stresses that once something is online it may never go away. “What people don’t understand, “she says, “is that once something is posted it’s part of a digital footprint that can follow you for life.”

For further information, go to Lori Getz’s website www.yourcec.org

Kris Kelley Rivera is a former television news writer and producer, and the mother of two boys. She lives in Studio City.