Grand Forks Police Officer Sue Shirek gave parents a good look at some of the dangers their children could face in surfing the Internet. It's crime prevention month, and Shirek, who is a community resource officer in the three public middle schools in Grand Forks, wants to help parents be up on what their children may be up to.
"This is the first time we have done this," Shirek said Monday, about a training session she held Monday night at South Middle School for parents and school employees.
Darin King, from the district's technology division, and Karla Hammer, a parent who runs her own computer security business, also were scheduled to speak to the parents.
"This is not stuff kids are doing at school," Shirek said. "But it's about what happens when a kid gets out of school, and starts texting or sexting, or cyber-bullying, or meeting online predators. Many parents aren't aware of what kind of trouble kids can get into in the first place."
It's not that problems are widespread in Grand Forks among middle-school students, Shirek said, but that the potential is grave. About 15 parents and school workers registered for the seminar Monday evening. A similar course will be held in January.
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It's easy for young people to swiftly get into receiving and passing on text messages that can include salacious gossip or bullying comments, Shirek said. Because of the nature of computer communication, children tend to be more profane, more aggressive, more nasty than they would if they were in person, Shirek said.
"They dare say a lot more things, and can say it to a lot more people, than in a face-to-face situation where they wouldn't dare say that kind of thing to someone."
She's not counseling parents to pull the plug on all the toys.
"Their cell phones and their texting and e-mailing are their ways of communicating with other people, so taking away the privileges I don't think is the answer. But we need to educate ourselves more, watch where they go on the computer, be just plain nosy. You have to know what your kids are involved in."
