Old Bridge Township Public Schools

Technology Department

Signs My Child is At Risk Online³

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation provides these clues to help you determine if your child is at risk online:

• Your child spends large amounts of time online, especially at night.

  Most children that fall victim to computer-sex offenders spend large amounts of time online, particularly in chat rooms.  They may go online after dinner and on the weekends.  Children who become victims are often latchkey kids whose parents have told them to stay home and in the house after school.  These children go online for social contact with their friends, to pass the time, and also to look for information they may not be privy to when their parents are home.

  Children online are most at risk during the evening hours.  While most offenders are online around the clock, most work during the day and spend their evenings online trying to locate and lure children or seeking pornography.

   

• You find pornography on your child's computer.

  Pornography is often used in the sexual victimization of children.  Sex offenders often supply their potential victims with pornography as a means of opening sexual discussions and for seduction.  Child pornography may be used to show the child victim that sex between children and adults is "normal."  parents should be conscious of the fact that a child may hide pornographic files on diskettes.  This may be especially true if the computer is used by other family members.

   

• Your child received phone calls from men you don't know or is making calls, sometimes long distance, to numbers you don't recognize.

  While talking to a child victim online is a thrill for a computer-sex offender, it can be very cumbersome.  Most want to talk to the children on the telephone.  They often engage in "phone sex" with the children and often seek to set up an actual meeting for real sex.

  While a child may be hesitant to give out his/her telephone number, the computer-sex offenders will give out theirs.  With Caller ID, they can readily find out the child's phone number.  Some computer-sex offenders have even obtained toll-free "800" numbers so that their potential victims can call them without their parents finding out.  Others will tell the child to call "collect."  Both of these methods result in the computer-sex offender being able to find out the child's phone number.

   

• Your child receives mail, gifts, or packages from someone you don't know.

  As part of the seduction process, it is common for offenders to send letters, photographs, and all manner of gifts to their potential victims.  Computer-sex offenders have even sent plane tickets in order for the child to travel across the country to meet them.

   

• Your child turns the computer monitor off or quickly changes the screen when you come into the room.

  A child looking at pornographic images or having sexually explicit conversations does not want you to see it on the screen.

   

• Your child becomes withdrawn from the family.

  Computer-sex offenders will work very hard at driving a wedge between a child and their family or at exploiting their relationship.  They will accentuate any minor problems at home that the child might have.  Children may also become withdrawn after sexual victimization.

   

• Your child is using an online account belonging to someone else.

  Even if you don't have an online service in your home, your child may meet an offender while online at a friend's house or the library.  Most computers come preloaded with online or Internet software and offer "trial" periods for free.  Computer-sex offenders will sometimes provide potential victims with a online account for communications with them.

³Source:  http://www.fbi/gov/publications/pguide/pguidee.htm

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