PALMERSTON – The push for cyber safety and human trafficking awareness among students is significant as technology seeps into the lives of youth.
Parents and guardians with cyber concerns can attend a free seminar about keeping children safe from predators hosted by the Minto Safe Communities committee.
The event will be held at the Palmerston Community Centre on Nov. 26 at 6pm.
Community safety
“We offer presentations to the community as a part of our mandate for community safety and crime prevention,” Crime Stoppers program coordinator Sarah Bowers-Peter told the Advertiser.
The presentation is titled 5 Tips, 5 Ideas, 5 Signs, meaning:
- five tips on how to talk to your children about cyber safety and human trafficking;
- five ideas on how to keep your child cyber safe and human trafficking aware; and
- five signs your child is being groomed.
This was created because “during the pandemic kids were online so much and it was a requirement for school; it’s a part of their culture, how they connect and communicate with each other,” noted Bowers-Peter.
“That’s where predators go to look for kids, they’re not looking for them at the local park because that’s not where the kids are,” she explained.
Two speakers will be present during the event to share their specific knowledge on the subject.
Bowers-Peter will be sharing information from the perspective of someone who is in schools and hearing first-hand experiences from the students.
“When I start talking about it [cyber safety and human trafficking] they already know because they’ve experienced it or they know somebody who has,” she noted.
Students shared the following experiences with Bowers-Peter:
- strangers direct messaging their accounts on social media platforms asking personal questions; an
- strangers asking for explicit imagery.
Another disturbing experience she hears when presenting at schools is how some young people believe they are in a relationship with a stranger online.
“Adults should not want to be in relationships with 12-year-olds,” she said.
Understanding the investigation
The other speaker will be detective constable Hugh Currie, who works in the internet child exploitation unit of the Guelph Police Service.
“He’s basically the front-line investigator for child pornography [and] child exploitation,” she said. “He sees the things that none of us want to see.”
Parents and guardians will hear tips from an “investigator’s perspective” and be able to ask questions to both speakers.
“We stay until the last question is answered … because some people will stay back and ask the questions privately and we’re fine with that,” she noted.
“It’s not [just] city kids; the internet makes every child vulnerable and just because you live in a rural community doesn’t mean you’re immune from this and if anything we need to talk more to prevent this from happening to our kids,” Bowers-Peter stated.
