Chat
Socializing Online – Chat
• E-mail seems to be too slow for today’s teens
• Typing conversations to friends in real time as friends immediately reply is known as chat. Chatrooms allow users of the Internet to converse with other users in a real time format no matter where in the world they are located.
• Favorite chat programs are
• ICQ
• MSN/Windows Live Messenger
• AOL or AIM
• Yahoo Messenger
Do you know when and who your children are talking to?
Understanding the stranger danger of the Internet
A STRANGER IS A STRANGER!
Just because the conversation takes place over the computer does not change that fact. Students know not to speak with a stranger on the playground, so why should the rules be different for on-line conversations? They would not tell a stranger where they live or go to school in person, so they should behave the same way on-line. They should understand that with just a little personal information a stranger could find where they live.
Potential Danger of Chat
- Your child may encounter someone who targets him or her to victimization
- Your child may encounter a predator who is search on online for victims
- Your child may encounter offensive language and adult content
- Your child may commit a crime, such a transmitting a threat of violence
Safety Tips for Chat
- Advise your child not to enter a chat room without your consent. This advice will be most effective for younger children
- Remind your child that visitors to chat rooms often disguise their identity
- Warn your child that a child predator may enter a chat room and “lurk” that is, observe conversations but not participate. The predator may target a particular child without even participating in the conversation
- Warn your child to avoid using either his or her real name or a provocative screen name
- Instruct your child not to complete ay online profile, as the profile could aid a sexual predator in location a victim. An online profile may not be as anonymous as your child believes
- Warn your child about the three most common questions pedophiles ask: 1) Are you home alone? 2) Who uses the computer 3) Where is the computer? Tell your child not to respond to these questions and to leave the chat room immediately.
- Warn your child never to “go private” into a chat room with a stranger. Many chat programs allow for a private method of chatting. A predator may seek to go private with a child he or she is targeting for victimization.
- Warn your child never to accept any files sent by someone met online
WEB CAM
A web cam is a video camera that can be installed on the computer. The user that the student is chatting with can see the user on the other end. Do not allow a webcam to be used unsupervised. A webcam makes it very easy for your children to post pictures of themselves.
REMEMBER, once that picture is posted, it can be broadcasted to millions
REAL LIFE STORIES 
JH/HS Principals:
Is anyone aware of an Internet safety assembly or other program? I've got a building of 400 pretty naive 7th-12th graders (to say nothing of their parents) and this is becoming a topic of increasing concern. I'd like to have something ready for next fall.
This morning I talked with a 15 year-old girl who told me that she was “dating" a kid she hadn't yet met in person. The "boy" was 17 years old and went to school at a large high school in central Illinois. Two phone calls from me and I was able to find out that no such student was enrolled. It took me ten minutes to discredit the story my student had believed for a month. I wonder who the "boy" is??? (I've encouraged the mother to contact the police.)
Principal of a Mid Central Illinois Junior and Senior High School
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