Police Offer Tips on Protecting Kids Online
Police Offer Tips On Protecting Kids Online (BCN) SAN JOSE Police had some advice today for parents concerned about recent reports suggesting a link between teenagers gone missing and their use of the online forum MySpace.com. San Jose police Detective David Gonzalez said it is very common for teens to participate in such online communities and that parents can minimize potential risk by taking a few precautions. Gonzalez, who works in the department's Internet crimes against children unit, said ultimately parents must be responsible for their children's Internet activity and take steps to keep them out of reach of online predators. "What we tell parents is that kids should not have a computer with Internet access in their own room," said Gonzalez. "Computers should always be in a common area." In addition, children should not be given the password to access the Internet from the family computer, according to Gonzalez. "The parents should log into the computer for the child," he said. Gonzalez admitted that these safety measures are "not a catch-all because (children) can just go over to their friends' houses," and online predators are constantly trolling chat rooms and online communities for possible targets. "One of the roles of our units is to go into places like MySpace.com and pose as children," Gonzalez said. Do the operators of MySpace and other online communities hold any responsibility for what happens on their sites? "You can't really hold (the Web sites) responsible," Gonzalez said. "Just like you can't really hold gun manufacturers accountable for someone who buys a gun and goes out and hurts someone." http://cbs5.com/local/local_story_019225718.html