FBI educating fourth graders on internet safety; urges parents to take precautions

PETERS TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The risks children and teens face on social media and online gaming platforms is prompting school districts to get involved in educating students on how to stay safe.

The Peters Township School District has partnered with the FBI for several years, offering internet safety training sessions for middle and high schoolers and evening sessions for parents.

Assistant Superintendent and Safety and Security Coordinator Michael Fisher says the district decided to expand the training to elementary students last year.

“So many kids are getting phones right now so it’s really important that this is the age, and five years from now we might be doing it with third grade,” Fisher said. “There are so many new technologies out there. I’m a parent myself and every day it’s changing.”

Channel 11 attended a session for fourth and fifth-grade students at McMurray Elementary School.

The session began with FBI community outreach specialists asking the students if they have phones, tablets or gaming systems that can connect them to the internet. Almost everyone’s hand shot up.

“How many of you interact with people you don’t know in real life?” a specialist asked. Many hands went back up.

“We see it all too often where kids are engaging with people they don’t know and due to that, making decisions that affect them for the rest of their lives,” said Felicia Trovato, Community Outreach Specialist at FBI Pittsburgh.

“I always say to parents, ‘Why do you close your door at night, right? To keep your kids safe. But your kid is upstairs with a cellphone and has a whole world at their fingertips,’” she said.

Trovato said predators and scammers are finding children through social media platforms but also through video games. The bad actors pose as a friend, another juvenile or a celebrity, and it only takes a few seconds to start communicating. Then they work to build a rapport with the child.

Trovato added that family members who post about children online are unknowingly helping predators get to know them. This is particularly true if parents or grandparents have limited privacy settings.

Simply sharing a photo for a birthday post or photos from a child’s game can be used to manipulate that child.

“That person knows Jimmy’s name, knows where they go to school, know the sports that they play,” Trovato explained. “All that stuff can be used against them. They can find that kid on Roblox or another social media site and because they have all that information, use that to build a rapport with a child that then can lead them into a dangerous situation.”

FBI Pittsburgh offered a list of tips and red flags children and guardians should be aware of.

For students:

• Be extremely cautious when communicating with anyone online, regardless of the platform, app, website, or game. If your accounts or information are open to everyone, a predator may be able to figure out a lot of information about you.
• Block or ignore messages from strangers. Be wary of anyone you encounter for the first time online.
• Know that people can pretend to be anyone or anything online. Videos and photos are not proof that people are who they claim to be.
• Be suspicious if you meet someone on an app, website, or gaming platform and they ask you to start communicating on a different platform, especially if it is an encrypted platform.
• Nothing actually “disappears” online. Once you share it, you don’t have any control over where it goes next.
• If you’re being victimized online, when you’re ready, reach out to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or make a report online at tips.fbi.gov. If you’re not ready to contact the FBI, go to another trusted adult and tell them you need help. You will not be in trouble. You are not the one breaking the law.
• If you learn of a friend, classmate, or family member being victimized, listen to them with kindness and understanding. Let them know they are the victim and have not done anything wrong. Encourage them to ask for help.

For parents:

• The FBI has interviewed victims as young as age eight. Thinking “this won’t happen to my child” is not an effective strategy to keep them safe.
• Talk to your children about appropriate online behavior. Be clear on what this looks like for themselves and for others.
• Keep the door open to your children so they know they can come to you and ask for help. Let them know your first move will always be to help.
• Don’t be afraid of conducting spot checks of your child’s phone or devices. You need to know what applications they are using and with whom they are communicating.
• Consider a rule against devices in bedrooms overnight or shutting off the Wi-Fi access in overnight hours.
• Review the settings on your child’s social media and gaming accounts. Keeping accounts private can prevent predators from gathering their personal information.
• Explain to your children that people can pretend to be anyone or anything online. Make sure they know that a stranger reaching out to them online may be doing so with bad intent.
• Stay educated and up to date on what apps, sites, platforms, and games are popular.

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