Safety in Surfing

High school students and their parents from across the state gathered at the Baton Rouge Holiday Inn Select on Wednesday to listen to Miss America, Lauren Nelson, speak about her platform, Internet safety. The Louisiana Teen Summit on Internet Safety and Grassroots Advocacy is an inaugural event modeled on the National Teen Summit hosted by John Walsh, host of "America's Most Wanted." The National Summit is held annually in June in Washington, D.C. Mallard Holliday, communications director of field operations for Cox Communications corporate office in Atlanta, said a national survey was conducted to find out what high school students do on the Internet. Holliday said 30 percent of teenagers, ages 13 to 17, have considered meeting a stranger, and 14 percent of teenagers have already met someone they did not previously know from the Internet. He said the main problem is teenagers are afraid to talk to their parents because they may enforce restrictions on their Internet usage. "Parents need to know about this," Holliday said. "The message we really want parents to hear is you can affect whether your kid takes these risks or not." Nelson opened with a personal experience with Internet predators. She said that when she was 13 years old, she and her friends had a slumber party and entered an online chatroom. She said an unknown person instant messaged her, and they chatted briefly. One week later the man contacted one of Nelson's friends who was at the party and sent inappropriate photographs of himself to her friend. "My friends and I were one the lucky ones. Nothing ever came of this situation," Nelson said. "But how easily it could have is scary. That's what sparked my interest in this issue." Nelson said one in five children are approached by online predators every day. She said that getting the word out to high school students and having them tell their friends will lower the statistic. "Parents have the biggest role in this issue," Nelson said. "Predators are smart and are tech-savvy enough to go on the Internet and find personal information." Nelson gave three tips to students to avoid online predators. She told students not talk to anyone they do not know, do not share any personal information such as phone numbers and addresses and to have adult supervision. Nelson also gave parents three tips to help protect their children. She told parents to keep their computer in a high-traffic area in their home, ask questions and become involved with their children's online activity by downloading software that can monitor what their children are doing on the Internet. Samuel Smith, sophomore at East Jefferson High School in Metairie, said he learned there were many different types of sexual predators on the Internet, and there are more ways they can get to people than he thought. Holly Vogel, Spanish teacher at East Jefferson High School, said that as a teacher and a parent, the statistic about how many teens are faced by online predators is alarming. She said a solution to this problem must be found. "Sexual predators are more prevalent than I thought they were," Vogel said. "The danger is more severe than I conceived it to be."

----- Contact Phillip Trascher at ptrascher@lsureveille.com