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Readers' comments on any of these resources are alsways welcome! Do email us via feedback@netfamilynews.org.Detective Williams's Tip No. 5 - 'Parents, know your children's screen names and passwords'
"Using a computer every day at work or home," Det. Bob Williams writes, "you may take a screen name for granted or not give it a lot of thought. But to ensure your children's online safety, their screen names and passwords deserve some thought. Their screen names should not include their actual names, because if your ISP (AOL, MSN, etc.) provides member profiles, the information in them, along with children's names, can be very helpful to online predators in several ways. For example, a predator can enter certain criteria in a member-profiles search - names, hobbies, sports, or other interests. The search will produce a list of member screen names. The predator can then send an instant message and start a dialogue with the child, using his or her own name. Children are inclined to respond to messages from people who use their names and act familiar by using personal information found in member profiles.
"Also, if you have teenagers at home you may want to know their passwords (it's a given with younger kids, right?!). Now, from experience I realize I am entering dangerous territory - the big debate about privacy invasion vs. concerned parent. I have investigated numerous reports of runaway teenagers and, in most cases, the fleeing child contacted a friend online and told them where they were headed - or contacted the person to whom they were running. In one case, the parents knew the child's screen name and password, so they could search through the child's online communications and figure out where the child went. A lot of time was saved, and the child and parents were quickly reunited.
"Reunions can happen a lot less quickly when parents don't know screen names and passwords because this information is protected by federal law. For police to gain access to an account in order to search through a child's messages for her whereabouts, they have to obtain a search warrant for the ISP to release a temporary/emergency password for an account, losing valuable time in a run-away case."
Det. Bob Williams is a father of two high school students and Youth Officer in the Greenwich, Conn., Police Departmen. You'll find other parts of this series here.
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