1939: Moviegoers flocked to the theaters to see the adventures of adolescent Dorothy Gale in the fantastic land of Oz. Viewers could sense the teen’s wonderment as she spoke to her companion: "Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore"!
Can today’s children comprehend the technological advancement their parents and grandparents have lived through? Nuclear weapons, TV, Color TV, VCRs, Video discs, computers, mobile phones, the iPad, the iPhone, electric cars, the Cloud, AI, robots, to name a few. The stuff of dreams and nightmares. These innovations have been part of their everyday existence since birth.
At PTA sponsored presentations about our program, Matt and I have been approached by parents who sought our input as to the appropriate age a pre-teen should be given some sort of independence, some autonomy in their decision making without constant parental oversight. Our reply: "There is no one absolute answer for that". You and your child share a unique relationship that we might not fully understand. Years ago, a highly respected peer, a coach for various sports, voluntarily resigned all his positions. Asked why he did so, he said, "I believe my children need me more as teenagers than when they were little".
Everything changes.
03/73: The first demonstration of the Motorola handheld mobile phone
01/01/83: The official birthday of the Internet
10/83: Mobile phones become commercially available
03/12/89: Welcome to the World Wide Web
1998: The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the United States
Department of Justice (DOJ) establishes the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Program in response to ever-increasing number of children and teens using the internet, an ever-increasing number of online images depicting child sexual abuse, and an ever-increasing amount of online activity by people seeking to contact and explicit this segment of the population.
The DOJ states there are four types of online victimization to be aware of:
1) solicitation to engage in sexual activities or talk about them (almost 1 in 5 of complaints reported);
2) aggressive sexual solicitation for OFFLINE contact (1 in 33 of complaints reported;
3) unwanted exposure to sexual materials (1 in 4 of complaints reported);
4) harassment (1 in 17 of complaints reported).
In an article in the Journal of PediatricHealth Care from November 2020, the author, Gail Hornor notes convicts described the internet as “a facilitative environment of abuse.”
02/04/04: Facebook launched.
02/01/05: YouTube appears.
10/6/10: Instagram
09/16: TikTok
These genies are not going back into the bottle!
By 2018, Pew Research finds that 95% of teens owned smartphones.
Since 1998, the ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force) program has received over 844,600 complaints, of which 89,400 resulted in arrests. Between 2020 and 2021, the DOJ reports of suspected child sexual exploitation rose 35%. In 2022, ICAC reported 80,524 complaints of online enticement of children for sexual acts, 18,536 cases of sex trafficking,
and 35,624 cases of unsolicited obscene material sent to children. In a 2022 report by the Government Accounting Office (GAO), the government noted technological advances make it more difficult to catch online predators.
Puberty begins much sooner now than it did at thebeginning of the 20th century. Even though the child’s body is maturing more rapidly, the thinking part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex
which is the site of human planning, prioritizing and decision-making, lags, not being fully developed to around 25 years of age! So, what could go wrong with the confluence of technology and enormous physiological, psychological, and sociological changes/pressures within the developing child? As Murphy’s Law states, "What can go wrong, will go wrong".
Will Geddes, an internationally known security specialist with over 30 years’ experience, is the author of Parent Alert: How to Keep Your Child SafeOnline. He wrote of his concerns an unrestricted and unmoderated internet presents for families:
The average child receives their firstphone at 11 and children as young as ¾ have access to parents’ tablets, laptops-tools that expose them to the saturation of social media images that give them unrealistic expectations of the real world setting impossible standards of beauty and lifestyles.
Geddes is onto something when he calls the internet, and by extension, smart phones, social media, a tool. They are truly power tools. No one should expect a child to pick up a circular saw, a nail gun, an electric drill without proper instruction. (I recall a recent terrifying commercial. A child is rummaging under a bed. Her father enters the room. Having found the loaded gun, she turns with arms extended. The father, fear in his eyes, kneels and …). Parents and guardians must initiate a dialogue with their children about internet/phone usage. You will decide when the child gets their own phone, no matter the social pressures on your child. As parents and guardians, you will obviously do anything in your power to protect your child’s person. You can deflect perhaps many of, some of, but certainly, not all of the physical accidents that can happen along the way. With the all too private, anonymous world of the internet/phones, developing awareness of the pitfalls of instant and permanent communication needs be addressed.
One of the benchmarks of any stranger safetyawareness program is personal space. Parents and guardians should emphasize to their children that cyber personal space must be as REAL to them as it is when they complain about siblings encroaching on their physical space. Unseen predators will do all in their power to sweet-talk their prey. Talk with the children about key words or phrases that you believe are warning signs about tmi (lower case for a reason)-too much information being shared and TMI (upper case for a reason)- too much intimacy being asked for. An unseen voice might sound warm and welcoming. A message may seem all too inviting. Stephen King wrote, The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool. Children’s minds are wonderfully imaginative and inventive. They may see a smile when they shouldn’t. Misinterpretations can and will arise. Shakespeare’s Hamlet says, "One may smile and smile, and still be a villain".
Never too late to talk about these issues.
Be safe!
About The Rose Brucia Educational Foundation
Founded by Matthew J.Barbis after his 11-year-old cousin, Carlie Brucia, Carlie Brucia, was abducted and murdered in Sarasota, FL in 2004. The Rose Brucia Educational Foundation’s goal is to reduce the number of child abductions in the U.S. by educating & empowering young minds with the knowledge necessary to avoid abduction. Utilizing a formalized educational curriculum, the foundation provides elementary-aged children with The Stranger Safety Awareness Program, free of
charge. The Rose Brucia Educational Foundation is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.