Crime & Safety

Internet Safety: Be Careful What You Click

Special agents from FBI Pittsburgh gave an Internet safety presentation after an Upper St. Clair girl fell victim in an Internet predator case.

An FBI investigation into who developed an online relationship with a 12-year-old Upper St. Clair girl and sent her inappropriate text messages ended Tuesday night.

FBI agents arrested the suspect—a law enforcement employee in Los Angeles.

"Who knows how many lives we saved?" said Tanya Evanina, a special agent with FBI Pittsburgh.

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The investigation began in September 2011 when the victim's parents found the inappropriate text messages on a cell phone and reported them to FBI.

Internet predator cases happen more than you may think.

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"We could have every agent in the bureau working on this (Internet predator cases) seven days a week and we still wouldn't be able to stop it," Evanina said.

Evanina and Special Agent Jason Pearson gave an Internet safety presentation to parents Wednesday night at the .

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is becoming increasingly common as technology expands. It includes spreading rumors and gossip on the Internet, posting pictures of someone without his or her consent, threatening or harassing someone with offensive language or stealing passwords to assume someone's identity.

Pearson said he sees passwords stolen a lot. The passwords are often the person's pet's name, he said.

Pearson said the challenge with cyberbullying is that it's "instantaneous and it's always out there.

"It creates so much pressure on your children," he said.

He has seen countless cases of girls who send provocative pictures to their boyfriends and the pictures ending up on pornography websites. Three in five kids have sent inappropriate pictures online, according to netsmartz.org.

"If you send an inappropriate picture to your boyfriend, it goes viral," Pearson said.

In one case, two local 24-year-old women found a provocative picture they took of themselves when they were 13 years old on a porn site.

Many times the porn site administrators won't take down the photos because they black out the private areas and say it is therefore not child porn.

If you see your child stop using the computer, getting nervous when he or she answers a text or email, becoming uneasy when going to school or withdrawing from friends and family, these are signs of cyberbullying and you should talk to your child. Stay calm and don't yell, Pearson said.

Be Careful What You Click On

Someone could be looking at you through your web camera right now.

Internet predators are now sending users links to click on that downloads malware to computers. The malware allows predators to watch through your web cam whenever your computer is connected to Wi-Fi.

Also, be careful with the pictures and check-ins you post online.

Photos taken with a smartphone or a GPS-enabled camera record a number and when posted online, can tell a "bad guy" exactly where you are. So think twice before posting that iPhone picture on Facebook.

Checking-in—which shares your location with friends online—can also be used by "bad guys" to find out your location.

Something else to keep in mind, when Facebook users update, such as switch their profiles to the new timeline look, privacy settings are gone. Be sure to reset your privacy settings.

Risky Online Decisions

Risky online decisions include "friending" unknown people, posting personal information, writing embarrassing or harassing comments, talking about sex, posting provocative images or sharing passwords.

Risky decisions can also be made when using gaming systems like PlayStation or Xbox.

One local young boy was playing Xbox when a stranger befriended him. Over time, the man—who used the gaming system's built-in voice changer and pretended he was 18—groomed the boy to not like his parents. The mother later discovered the relationship and the FBI arrested the man—a school teacher in North Carolina.

Signs of Grooming

Online predators are everywhere and can gain a child's trust over time. The children will confide in them—tell them secrets—and will start to push parents away.

In one recent and local case, Evanina said a 12-year-old girl was having an inappropriate relationship with a 55-year-old man.

Her friends ended up telling a teacher and her parents reported the incident to police in November 2011.

The relationship started online in June 2011. The man even met the girl after school at a coffee shop and the two were planning a trip to New York City for her birthday.

The girl wouldn't talk to law officials. She protected and loved the man and still wanted to go on the trip.

The two used Skype to communicate and the man used a special website that would erase his text messages from her phone.

The man—a convicted sex offender in New York—was arrested.

Sometimes predators will also use extortion. For example, the predator will have a child send a goofy, embarrassing picture and threaten to post in online if he or she doesn't send the predator a naked photo.

Signs of grooming include gifts online such as Wii points, gifts through the mail such as web cams or bus tickets, calls to unknown numbers, the child getting upset when he or she can't get online, the child turning off the monitor or minimizing a window when you come into the room or the child turning away from family and friends.

Resources

The special agents recommend parents use http://www.netsmartz.org/Parents, teens use http://www.nsteens.org/ and kids use http://www.netsmartzkids.org/ for education.

Victims who don't want to go to police can use cybertipline.com to report incidents.

Ray Berrott, 's director of technology, said the district is stepping up to do more to raise awareness among students.

The presentation was organized by the school district, the and the Youth Steering Committee.

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