ASSEMBLY DEMOCRATS INTRODUCE 10-BILL PACKAGE TO IMPROVE INTERNET SAFETY
Comprehensive Package Stems from Attorney General Milgram’s Initiatives Would Enhance Penalties and Laws to Protect Children on the Internet
(TRENTON) – Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein and 13 other Assembly Democratic lawmakers today announced they’ve introduced a sweeping 10-bill package that would give law enforcement enhanced abilities to crackdown on child Internet crimes.
The 10-bill package, among other things, would upgrade penalties and crimes for offenders who communicate in a harassing, sexually offensive or abusive manner with minors on Web sites and through electronic communication.
The bills are part of Attorney General Anne Milgram’s Internet safety initiatives.
“This 10-bill package would give law enforcement the tools they need to better protect children who use the Internet for education and recreation,” said Greenstein (D-Middlesex/Mercer), who is sponsoring each bill. “No longer will Web sites be the playgrounds of criminals looking to prey on vulnerable children.”
“My office combats Internet threats by employing an aggressive, multi-pronged approach ranging from criminal and civil investigations to cooperative efforts with networking sites and service providers to education initiatives aimed at teachers, school administrators, parents and students,” Milgram said. “But as we pursued our initiatives, it became clear that it was essential that our criminal and civil enforcement statutes address evolving threats posed by bad actors online. This comprehensive Internet safety legislative package addresses those issues."
Also sponsoring the legislation are Assembly members Wayne P. DeAngelo, Nelson T. Albano, Gary S. Schaer, Matthew W. Milam, Frederick Scalera, John J. Burzichelli, Peter J. Barnes III, Elease Evans, Valerie Vainieri Huttle, Patrick J. Diegnan Jr., Pamela R. Lampitt, Gordon M. Johnson and Douglas H. Fisher.
“It’s a parent’s worst nightmare to realize their child’s safety has been jeopardized simply by using a computer,” said DeAngelo (D-Mercer/Middlesex). “It’s time New Jersey upgrades its crimes and penalties to assist law enforcement in preventing, investigating and cracking down on Read more
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Should You Let Your Child Use an Internet Chat Room?
Are you the parent of a child who has recently decided that they want to use internet chat rooms? Or, are you a parent who has just learned that your child has been using internet chat rooms? If you are, you may be unsure as to how you should proceed. Yes, internet chat rooms are a great way to make new friends online, but they can be dangerous. So, should you let your child use online chat rooms?
When it comes to determining if your child is ready to use online chat rooms, it is best to examine the pros and cons of them. For starters, there are chat rooms out there that are designed for children and teenagers. By visiting these chat rooms, your child should be paired with their peers. They may also be able to make new online friends and communicate with their friends from school easily online.
Meeting new friends online and communicating with current friends over the internet, by way of internet chat rooms, is nice. It, however, is also important to remember that there are Read more
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Crime Prevention: OMG! Your child is doing what on the computer?
February 8, 2009
by Sherri Bevan Walsh
Summit County Prosecutor
The Internet is here to stay. As parents, we cannot realistically hope to rear Internet-free kids. Instead, we must become proactive participants in our kids’ online worlds and most importantly, we must learn their language.
One of the most commonly used programs on home computers is instant messaging or "I-M’ing." This is a program that allows your child to instantly communicate with another person by typing messages back and forth. Teens and "Tweens" have perfected the art of the I-M and its secret code, and younger children are catching on. If your kids are typing "PAL" as you approach the computer, know that they are not referring to their pal, instead they are short handing for "parents are listening." A "PA" is no longer referencing a loud speaker or the state east of Ohio, but a "parent alert" and "P911" is an emergency code for "my parents are coming!" As these codes permeate the lines of communication between kids, parents must stop to wonder why these codes were created. There is only one conclusion: our kids aren’t behaving the way we want them to when they are online.
Parents everywhere have watched in horror as Read more
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The real dangers in cyberspace
Reports reveal surprises on what is awaiting teens
Monday, February 02, 2009
By MELISSA HEALY, Los Angeles Times
Since emerging from the primordial ooze, parents have wrung their evolving appendages over ways to shield their offspring from hungry predators, lurking maniacs and strangers from without.
Again and again, they’ve learned, the threat to their children lies uncomfortably closer to home: Lion fathers would sooner eat their unprotected young than hunt wilier quarry; children pictured on milk cartons were more likely to have been snatched from home by a parent than by a stranger.
It was a lesson brought home again in a recent report, when parents learned that the roughly 6 in 10 adolescents who socialize on the Internet have relatively little to fear from potential perverts lurking in the anonymity of cyberspace.
A Harvard University-led task force on Internet safety, ordered by the nation’s attorneys general and meant to expose the full extent of the danger, found instead that kids trading gossip, photos and plans on social networking sites such as MySpace are relatively safe from adults cruising online for sex with minors.
The report, released Jan. 13, counters political calls to protective action with a generally upbeat look at the effectiveness of measures developed by Internet companies to protect kids. It douses parental fretting with research showing that few kids have been subject to such unwanted advances when socializing on sites aimed at the youth market.
Those findings come on the heels of several studies showing that online social networking appears to be a perfectly benign practice for the vast majority of kids, even for those most consumed by the pastime. After a steady diet of warnings that their children’s growing Internet use is a likely cause of academic failure, attention disorders and obesity, a parent could be forgiven for welcoming the news with an audible sigh of relief.
Those parents might want to read to the report’s end, however. The perpetrators of psychological wounds and the stalkers who would steal their kids’ innocence are probably Read more
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What to Do If Your Child Runs Into Trouble Online
Are you the parent of a child or teenager who uses the internet? As much as we would all like to believe that are children are safe when using the internet, there are certain situations that may, unfortunately, arise. It is important to remember that most children use the internet to communicate with their friends or to make new friends, not just to do research for school projects. If your child finds themselves in trouble online and comes to you, do you know what you can or should do?
As it was previously stated, numerous situations can develop online that have the potential to be dangerous. One of those situations is when personal information is exchanged with a stranger. Has your child recently given away your phone number, address, or their email address to someone who they don’t really know?
If so, be sure to change as much information as possible. This may involve changing your home phone number or your child’s cell phone number or email address. Be sure to take additional safety steps, such as always being aware of your surroundings, locking your home and car, and you may also want to contact your local authorities. Be sure to talk to your child about Read more
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