Advice to parents: Be aware, be informed

MILL HALL - Agent Craig LeCadre of "Operation Safe Surf" told parents they've been lucky so far, but vigilance will be required if they are to protect their youngsters against dangerous communications in today's "Cyber Society."

Clinton County District Attorney Mike Salisbury backed that plea, while updating the public about a local case of cell phone abuse that sparked Keystone Central School District's strong response to the growing concerns about that situation.

Monday's activities featured five assemblies in the schools - four for middle school students and one for adults.

Last night, Central Mountain Middle School Principal Norm Palovscik added his voice to the fray, by pointing to an increasing number of incidents in which cell phones play a role in harassment and bullying among middle school students.

About 60 parents and concerned citizens attended the adult session last night, which turned out to be a graphic and frank dialogue on the dangers teens face in today's society, inundated as they are by electronic devices like computers and cell phones.

The gatherings themselves were sparked by recent revelations a local female teen sent explicit video correspondence to a teenage boy - and the recording spread to other students in the schools before being mistakenly sent to a 50-year-old Montoursville woman who called police.

The underlying factors offered no better example of exactly why local officials are so concerned.

According to Salisbury, the ensuing investigation started by state police at Montoursville and touching briefly upon by the local FBI office has been referred to his department for disposition. The school itself has interviewed the involved parties in conjunction with its own investigation of those events.

The circumstances, as unfortunate as they were for all the young people, offered a perfect opportunity to send a lesson home to middle school students.

LeCadre said teenagers snapping naked pictures of themselves on cell phones and sending them to their boyfriends and girlfriends is only the tip of the iceberg. Young people are becoming too complacent about the dangers of the Internet and electronic communications, and because of that they've become more vulnerable to Internet predators.

And while the local incident didn't quite fit into the definitions surrounding those predators, it was perhaps criminal behavior rising to the level of harassment, Salisbury said. Sending an image to others could rise to the level of child pornography, a third-degree felony, he said.

Salisbury's message to the crowd: "I share your concerns, I am reviewing the case and appropriate action will take place. Frankly, I'm undecided about the first two teens, but I'm angry about the person who disseminated the information to others."

Salisbury then read a text message between two local teens - a 13-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy - uncovered Sept. 25 by the local juvenile probation department. The language ran the full range of profanity and included graphic descriptions of varied sexual acts while touching upon the full realm of a drugs and party culture. At one point the two teens even discussed making a pornographic film.

Salisbury said the correspondence eventually led to placement in a secure facility for troubled youngsters.

He then told the crowd it should not believe that type of text message is uncommon in Clinton County. The fact is, many parents are unaware of exactly what their children are doing with computers and cell phones these days, he said.

"Your kids might tell you that it's a matter of privacy," Salisbury said. "I'm here to tell you that there is no privacy when it comes to children ... At least not until you're 18."

Salisbury also talked about another "red flag" that might have some local ramifications.

"If you're listening to your kids talk on the phone and they say something about farming - spelled p-h-a-r-m-i-n-g - you need to get your red flag up," he said. What the kids are actually talking about, he said, is a practice in which they steal prescription medicine from their parents' medicine cabinet, take it to a private party and place it into a large bowl along with the pills their friends have collected.

"Then they grab some pills, not even knowing what they are, and wait for something to happen."

Palovscik held up his own cell phone and said if it were his decision, no student in the middle school would have one in his or her possession, a remark that drew some applause from the crowd.

"I don't believe the district's phone policy is tough enough," he said, noting the last time the matter was addressed by the school board, some parents complained that their children needed to be able to readily communicate with family members because of after-school activities.

Palovscik said illicit communications aren't the only problems being addressed by the schools, and mentioned one incident last year, where a teen planned to take 25 OxyContin tablets and distribute them to middle school kids. (OxyContin is an opiate very similar to heroin in its addictive qualities.)

"Thankfully, the father intercepted them before that happened," Palovscik said, "but I have to tell you, the very thought of 25 kids going to the emergency room scared me to death."

"It all starts in the home," AG representative LeCadre said. "A lot of people don't live in the state of Pennsylvania - They live in the state of denial. Unfortunately, it's the kids who are going to pay."

LeCadre's comments focused specifically on the dangers of computers and the Internet. He described today's computers as one of the most powerful tools ever invented, and said today's youth are the most informed in the history of the world because of that tool.

Unfortunately, he said, powerful tools can also be powerful weapons, and in the hands of an unprincipled child molester, the machine can make any youngster as vulnerable as any lamb might be in the midst of a pride of lions.

The good news, he said, is today's youngster is pretty savvy when it comes to electronics, and the bad news is today's youngster doesn't realize how vulnerable he or she really is to manipulation when it comes to Internet predators.

"I'm happy to report that you have some good, bright, energetic kids," he said. "It's not easy to have kids open up in a forum like this, but they did well. Now I encourage you to open up a dialogue with them at home, and let them clue you in on what's going on."

LeCadre said one in five young people between the ages of 10 and 17 are sexually solicited online, and 5 percent of those are solicited by a sexual predator who tries to see them in person.

He said the state's attorney general has a special unit that's online 23 hours a day, seven days a week, the members of which visit sites and pose as teens to see what type of response they might receive.

"I have to tell you, it's not very long before somebody sends them a message with an explicit picture or an invitation to meet," LeCadre said. "Since 2003, we've caught and convicted 167 of them and that's just our unit. That's not state or local police or federal authorities. That's just the tip of the iceberg."

LeCadre then showed a series of photographs of the men who were caught.

"Every last one of them were arrested for trying to hook up with an underage person," he said. "If you look at the pictures, not one of them is crying. Most of these guys were not disappointed because they were arrested, they were disappointed because they couldn't keep a date with a child."

LeCadre said the typical predator is white, aged 20 to 60 and frequently a professional with a standing in the community. Many of them are married with children and quite a few have accepted positions in a supervisory role over young people. They are generally considered quite intelligent, he added.

Typical techniques for luring children into meetings include posing as children themselves, opening up a private online dialogue, and slowly grooming the unsuspecting teen with comments designed to feed on a loner's lack of self esteem.

At the children's session, LeCadre said, he threw out key rings to young people who answered questions correctly, and soon had a large number of teens holding up their hands to answer questions.

"If I can train them to answer questions like that after only an hour and with something so small as a key ring, what might a predator do with an unlimited amount of time and a series of presents like jewelry and teddy bears?" he asked.

Sometimes, LeCadre said, kids set themselves up for a fall by placing personal information and photographs on social networking Web sites like MySpace.com.

"Kids put out a picture of themselves in pajamas and that might be innocent, but predators see it in a completely different way ... a sick way," he said.

LeCadre encouraged parents to make sure their kids know some common safety tips, including never giving out e-mail addresses to unknown parties, never providing personal information on the Internet, never posting photographs and never agreeing to meet anybody they meet online. He also emphasized it's important for parents to reinforce that common sense behavior - and recommended parents go so far as to take away the electronic item if the rules are violated.

"Operation Safe Surf" is a statewide initiative.

KCSD officials encouraged all parents to attend and those who showed up for the session left armed with some questions for their sons and daughters, and some weapons to combat the dangers those students face. LeCadre said this was, by far, the largest attendance the program has seen from adults since the program was created last year, and he thanked the parents for their interest in the subject and their commitment to their offspring.

Anyone who has information about Internet predators can contact the Child Predator Unit, toll-free, at 800-385-1044.