Thursday, March 22, 2012

Cyber Crimes

KTMS Radio Commentary

It’s very common for any young person with a camera phone to take a picture, even an innocuous one, with a friend, and upload it to a Facebook page or post it on a site.
Parents may be unaware that every picture taken by a cell phone now has a geo tag, which provides the exact latitude and longitude where the picture was taken.
This means that anyone who means harm to young people can see a picture online and find out exactly where the young people are, just by the geo tag. That’s cause for great concern.
Our office is working in partnership with District Attorney Joyce Dudley to be aggressive in the new battle lines against cyber crimes and cyber bullying. 
The incidents of bullying via text and online sites is also mushrooming and can be devastating. 
The best bet for parents is to pay attention to how children respond to criticism — if they seem to have an especially short fuse, and react quite badly to even mild criticism, it could be a sign that they are experiencing cyber bullying and it is making them much more sensitive to negative statements.
It’s also important to notice any changes in a child’s behavior patterns, such as a good student not wanting to go to school, or an outgoing child becoming withdrawn.
Most important of all, parents must monitor their children’s Internet behaviors and make sure their children know not to frequent the sites that are dangerous. We all have to work together in this area because adults are truly playing catch-up.