Internet safety workshop informs people of diocese

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
February 2, 2006

The Diocese of Sioux City recently hosted Internet Safety Awareness workshops to inform about on-line dangers and sexual predators.

The workshop was offered six times over three days in the diocese including presentations at St. Mary's School in Storm Lake in the afternoon and evening on Jan. 24 and Mater Dei School-Nativity Center in Sioux City on Jan. 25 in the afternoon and evening. Spalding Catholic School in Granville hosted the workshop in the afternoon on Jan. 26 and another presentation was made that evening at Gehlen Catholic School in Le Mars.

Robert Hugh Farley, one of the world's leading experts on child sex crimes, facilitated the workshop. Farley is a 30-year veteran of the Cook County Sheriff's Police Department in Chicago, Ill. who has more than 28 years of experience conducting and supervising all aspects of child abuse investigations - from sexual abuse to child homicide.

"I thought the presentations were all very good. I think the parents and teachers who were there were very intent on learning this new information about how various forms of technology can be used in the transmission of inappropriate materials," said Kevin Vickery, superintendent of Catholic schools for the diocese. "The other piece that I think went extremely well is that it makes us more aware that it is not a certain demographic group that fits this. If we see anything we are seeing it diversified into upper income brackets both as victims and as perpetrators because of the nature of the cost of technology."

Vickery also pointed out how quickly cell phones and other media are being used.

"I think the presentations made people aware that technology has a side that can be very destructive to children," said Vickery.

Farley used a PowerPoint presentation to convey his message and show examples of what to look out for. He integrated pictures and video clips to make his points.

Farley told stories about cases that he has worked on and how the sexual predators were caught. Farley talked about times when he and another cop would be on-line talking in chat rooms pretending to be a young girl, under an assumed name, trying to seek out sexual predators.

The Internet crimes expert presented tips for developing a safe environment for children. One prevention solution is to put a computer in the living room, family room or kitchen rather than in a child's bedroom.

Farley explained not to allow children to be on-line in the afternoon - after school - without an adult in the house. This is a time when many predators are on-line knowing that parents may not be home from work.

He also advised to make sure children do not post personal information when using on-line diaries or profiles such as myspace.com, facebook.com, livejournal.com or xanga.com.

"On xanga.com, there is a little boy, who has put his real name, where he lives, full date of birth and the fact that he is a male," said Farley. "What happens is that kids put all of their innermost feelings on here."

Farley went over the child molester's on-line seduction techniques. Some of the techniques include the molester assuming a child or teen identity or creating a bogus profile. The person pretends to care about children and asks for personal information. They might also request telephone contact or a meeting in person.

"The kids don't perceive these people as lying," said Farley.

At the end of the presentations, Farley took questions from the attendees. One question at the Spalding workshop was whether or not there were many cases of women as the sexual predator. Farley reported that the cases with women were fewer because in some instances those situations are not reported.

"I think that both parents and teachers need to be aware of the dangers that are out there as far as sexual predators," said Rose Davis, principal at St. Mary High School in Storm Lake. "Parents then need to not only be aware but to set house rules that keep their children safe. You can only do that once you are aware what the issue is and the problem."

Davis explained that she learned a lot and walked away with "just as many questions as far as what is the role of the school system in monitoring internet access for students."

"It was just as much motivational as far as making sure that we gather together our resources and starting to address the issue right away," said Davis.

At the sessions in Storm Lake there were about 30 teachers who attended along with parents, representation from the Storm Lake Police Department and representatives from other school districts in the area.

Kay Broich, parent to students on all three levels at Storm Lake St. Mary, noted that she attended to become more educated on what is out there for children and to know what to look for.

"I learned that I don't know a whole lot about what the kids do on the computer," said Broich. "It can be a real scary thing if you don't really pay attention to what they are doing."

She mentioned that staying informed is important because "there is so much out there and the technology is going far faster than I had imagined."

The technology coordinator for Mater Dei in Sioux City, Karen Gebhardt, mentioned that the students are on-line all the time.

"I need to learn from any place I can that has to do with technology and the internet," said Gebhardt. "Anymore you don't even think of it as being on-line. You think of it as a resource to integrate whatever kind of information you are trying to gain for your classroom activities."

She added that behind the scenes she keeps filters up to speed.

"I picked up a couple additional Web sites that I added to our sonic wall filter," said Gebhardt. "A lot of the things he spoke of, we don't allow as part of our technology. We don't allow instant messaging. The on-line blog sites are filtered out at the sonic wall. When they do searches, we have explicit content filters on so the students aren't exposed to that. I felt affirmed that what we are doing is good."

Throughout the sessions educators, parents and other people from the community attended including all of the teachers from Danbury Catholic, Remsen St. Mary's, Sheldon St. Patrick's, Granville Spalding (grade school and high school) and the Catholic Schools of Sioux City.

"The afternoon session were extremely well attended," said Vickery. "You always wish that there were more because the more people who know, the more people who can be a part of the solution. However, I am grateful for the ones who we had so they can start to spread the word. We will continue to look at ways in which to keep the awareness of these kinds of things out there through as many sources as we can."