Members of the Westfield Youth Coalition spoke about the dangers children may face on the internet. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
WESTFIELD – A panel discussion titled “Keeping Our Children Safe” was held at the Westfield Women’s Club on Thursday night, hosted by the Westfield Youth Coalition.
According to Westfield Youth Coalition Coordinator Sarah Camerota, the event was one in a series of many events that will be hosted by the coalition throughout the community.
Keeping Our Children Safe was mainly focused on the numerous dangers children can face on the internet. The topics included cyber risks, risks of perpetration to children, and hidden risks that parents may not know about.
“Risk of abuse is something that is different,” said Camerota. “Unfortunately, it is real.”
Camerota and the rest of the Westfield Youth Coalition are made up of several members of the community. It includes police officers, school officials, mental health professionals as well as parents.
Westfield Police Detectives Roxanne Bradley and Todd Edwards discussed their knowledge and what they have found with a power point presentation.
The officers started off the presentation by talking about children’s behavior on mobile devices. That behavior involves harassment, access to another child’s social media accounts, physical fights, and sexting.
Members of the Westfield Youth Coalition talked about the dangers children may face with the internet. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
Bradley and Edwards went on to explain that a major gateway to danger for children are the applications (apps) on smart phones that can help predators connect with children under 18 years of age. The common apps to watch out for are Kik, Snapchat, We Chat, Facebook messenger, and Drop Box.
The presentation then went more into a discussion of hiding tools that people, especially parents, may never have heard of. Data hiding apps allow a child to disguise an app they may have that they don’t want their parents or anyone else to see, and it will look like a very harmless app, like a calculator or audio controller.
The officers gave a tip to parents that the best way to find the data hiding apps, is to search through the child’s downloads and installed app in order to find it and uninstall it.
As a parent herself, Bradley reminded what the important message is to the children.
“We want to educate them, we want to get them off the phone,” said Bradley.
With the police department always dealing with cases of children in danger of risks on the internet, a constant communicator with the police is the school department.
Chris Rogers, who is the Administrator of Student Interventions for Westfield Public Schools, stood up and talked.
“A lot of the information (regarding internet dangers) the police department gets, comes from us,” said Rogers.
Rogers has seen what the risks of the internet can do firsthand in the school system.
“We deal with social media issues all the time,” said Rogers. “Sometimes cyber issues can cause a hostile environment at the schools.”
Ann Lentini, a member of the Westfield Youth Coalition, spoke about making sure the parents are aware of the risks that their child may be involved with.
“We need to be firm, this is occurring,” said Lentini. “This could be your child.”
The U.S. District Attorney’s Office was also represented on Thursday night. The office and the coalition group both agreed that they plan on having an even bigger event regarding the risks of the internet in February, March, or April.
