Tue Feb 09 2010
After concerns from a parent, officials at Western Hills High School are getting the message out about the dangers of cyber stalking.
Cyber stalkers use personal information such as a hometown or phone number from online games and social networking groups to learn about and prey on victims sexually.
WHHS Principal Rita Rector issued a letter to parents about cyber stalking after a recent report.
"I had a parent who contacted one of my counselors and had talked about a situation that her child had given out some personal information and had been contacted in some sort by someone else from the Internet, so the parent was alarmed," Rector said.
Rector said students provide personal information to Web sites like Facebook and Myspace, as well as online video games that can be used by Internet stalkers to track them down.
"They're putting in information and getting on the Web pages and putting out their picture all the time then that's how you start having stalking (and that) kind of thing, basically predators," Rector told The State Journal Monday.
"We felt like that was something we wanted to make sure the kids were aware of and (for) the parents to watch."
Allison Martin, communications director for the attorney general, said the office has been trying to educate parents and students about ways to be safe online.
"(We've) stressed that parents be part of the child's real world but also the child's virtual world," Martin said.
Attorney General Jack Conway proposed legislation banning registered sex offenders from social networking sites last year, but it was defeated in the Senate. Martin said Conway plans to reintroduce the legislation in January.
Martin said Conway also urges students to keep profiles set on sites such as Myspace and Facebook to "private" " which allows only "friends" to view it " and parents to closely monitor their child's activities online.
"Just as you would check on your child if they were spending the night with a friend the attorney general also encourages parents to check their children online," Martin said.
Conway recently announced a conference on Nov. 24 and 25 at the Downtown Hotel in Lexington that will offer tips to parents to keep children safe online. The conference will cost $100 and is open to any adult in Kentucky.
Rector said she's planning to hold an information session with students to reiterate the dangers, which were already taught at the beginning of the school year.
"We don't want to be alarmist by it, but just go over again, good Internet appropriate things that you should or shouldn't do," Rector said.
Rector also attached a list of Web sites in her letter that provide strategies for Internet monitoring for parents.
Educating the students to keep personal information private is the biggest step in preventing cyber stalking, Rector said.
"Lots of times kids get into those games and don't realize that they're putting all their own personal identification that anybody can pick up or look at them or track them down," she said.
"You might think that it isn't anything to put that you go to Western Hills High School but that's again another bit of information that maybe later, somewhere you said something else and people can match that up and locate you."
"It's just a safety issue for kids in general."
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