Class on digital realities offered by police, schools
Children spend an average of seven and a half hours each day working with electronic media — computers, pads and phones. Yet many parents would not recognize the online persona of their own children.
That’s what Benicia police and the Benicia Unified School District have learned through seminars developed by South Bay police and school district officials, with the help of the Internet company Yahoo, Lt. Frank Hartig said.
As a result, the local police and school district periodically give parents a chance to attend a program called “Know Your Internet Child.”
The next class, designed in particular for parents and guardians of middle and high school students, is Wednesday at Benicia High School, Hartig said.
“We started last year, the first time at Matthew Turner Elementary,” Hartig said. Digital Citizenship Parent Nights also have been conducted at Joe Henderson and the high school, he said.
“There are kids that know nothing but the Internet, and parents are trying to catch up on the technology,” Hartig said.
The program tells true stories and shows interviews with family members of victims of cyberbullying and other dark sides of Internet use, he said.
“It was very powerful, very moving,” he said of the first time he witnessed the program. “There was not a dry eye in the room.”
Hartig said Benicia has been fortunate in avoiding some of the more serious consequences of Internet bullying, such as when youth have taken their own lives.
But the city isn’t immune — it has had a few incidents that have made the news.
Earlier this month, someone reported that inappropriate data, including that of a sexual nature, had been posted to a Twitter page used as a gossip site by school children in Benicia, Vallejo and American Canyon.
Some of the postings were reportedly graphic and mentioned students and school names. Parents of some of the students associated with the postings told police they didn’t know their children had Twitter accounts.
That page has been removed, but others remain, Hartig said.
In a separate case in 2009, two Benicia Middle School girls, one 12 and the other 14, attacked a 13-year-old classmate twice and then posted videos of the assaults online.
Hartig said such cases are not common here, “but we get calls now and then from concerned parents.”
While he hasn’t encountered a local case of sexting — transmitting self-taken nude or otherwise sexual photographs to others — Hartig said Antioch police had to deal with such a case less than a month ago.
That subject is explored during the program, as is testimony by parents who lost a child to suicide after severe online bullying.
However, the class focuses even more on helping students make right decisions and bringing parents up to speed about what goes on in their children’s cyber lives.
“By high school, every kid has a cell phone, and their cell phones are mini PCs,” Hartig said. “They’re portable computers.
“Kids put stuff up on Facebook — holding beer, or compromising situations.”
For the child, it may be a joke. But for an online predator, it’s an opening to start a conversation that can lead to exploitation, he said.
Benicia police take reports of these cases seriously, Hartig said, and work with the school district and school resource officers on investigations.
“But I think more parents need to get involved,” he said. That’s because parents bear ultimate responsibility.
“As the officers who teach this class explain, kids don’t realize they don’t sign the contract for their cell phones,” Hartig said. “Parents, you’re responsible for what these kids do on these devices.”
In fact, if cyber bullying leads to someone getting hurt, some damage done or to a death, parents can be held civilly liable, even if they are not charged with a crime, he said.
Hartig said the class is open to anyone who wants to attend. “The Hayley Horn Auditorium holds a ton (of people),” he said, hoping each seat in the room gets filled Wednesday. “We’re trying to get the word out there. Anything we can do to help parents, it will help us.”
The informational program is being promoted on the police department’s Web page at www.ci.benicia.ca.us and the Benicia High School website http://beniciahs-beniciaunified-ca.schoolloop.com/.
Those interested may call school psychologist Kelli Leiner, 707-747-8300, ext. 1905.
The Digital Citizenship Parent Night starts at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Hayley Horn Auditorium of Benicia High School, 1101 Military West.
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