Tyler

By MEGAN MIDDLETON
Staff Writer

One in seven children, ages 10 to 17, received a sexual solicitation online last year, 34 percent had an unwanted exposure to sexual material and 75 percent of children say they are willing to share personal information online in exchange for goods and services.

Those are statistics highlighted during a kickoff event for a new Internet safety program that several groups in Tyler are bringing to the community.

The program is called RAISE - Raising Awareness in Internet Safety through Education.

The Tyler Police Department, Tyler Independent School District, Discovery Science Place and Suddenlink are a part of the partnership.

"Our goal today through this partnership is to bring awareness to the issue and bring tools to the community that parents can use to protect our children," said Skip Ogle of Suddenlink. "... This is an issue that is happening not only in Tyler, Texas, but across the state, across the nation and across the globe."

And crimes involving the Internet and children are taking place locally, Police Chief Gary Swindle said, although he said many likely go unreported.

"They do happen, and they do happen here in Tyler," Swindle said. "Fortunately, they haven't resulted in any tragedy that we're aware of. We want to go into prevention mode, and that's what the partnership is all about."

Swindle said often times police have to get involved after the fact - but this program allows them to take steps to thwart a crime before it happens.

"This is a gallant effort on (behalf) of this whole partnership to move into the prevention mode," Swindle said. "The Internet is a dangerous place, but if parents are involved, we can make a difference. Even if we just prevent one of these tragic events, then it will be well worth all the time and effort."

TISD Superintendent Dr. Randy Reid said the school district can play a role in helping disseminate information to parents. It already teaches students about the dangers of the Internet as they learn how to use computers at school, he said.

"For many years we've tried to do our best to help educate our children as well as provide security when we allow students on the Internet at schools," Reid said. "That's always been a big part of our responsibility. From this point, we really feel it's important to reach out into the homes and to help the parents gain information that they need to understand the dangers.

"There are a lot of potholes in that superhighway, as we know, that we need to make sure the parents are aware of."

The Tyler ISD Council PTA will also be a part of the effort to get the information out to parents of school children.

During Thursday's event, Woody Edmiston, a local advocate and former police officer, said his son's death came as a result of his emotional investment in an online world.

"I had no idea that anything existed like social networking online and the opportunities for difficulty for children," Edmiston said. "I lost my son as a direct result of his involvement with online issues. ... It is a dangerous place. And the parent who allows their child a computer in their bedroom that is not supervised is doing the equivalent of allowing them to walk down Bourbon Street in their pajamas at midnight."

Edmiston said there is no "cyber cop."

"There's no friendly man in blue to help you across the street when you're online," Edmiston said. "Those children are out there by themselves unless their parents are there to help them."

But in addition to predators looking to hurt children, Edmiston said children can also hurt themselves with their involvement online, as in the case of his son.

"The amount of emotion and the amount of life these kids are putting into their computers is huge," he said.

He described the Internet as being like fire: "It can be productive or it can destroy."

Also during Thursday's program, state Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, spoke about his work on legislation to toughen sentences for child sex predators, public service announcements that will air on television nationwide were shown and experts were available to demonstrate how to set up parental controls for Internet safety.

Det. Dennis Matthews of the Tyler Police Department also shared some tips for Internet safety.

Among the tips he shared were for parents to check the browsing history on the computer to see what sites have been visited, talk with their children about not giving out certain information online, talk with their children about not meeting people in person who they met online and to keep the computer in a high traffic area of the home.

Suddenlink officials said Thursday's event is the first of a series of more local informational events and meetings about this issue that will take place in an effort to spread the message to parents about how to protect their children.

"Sometimes (parents) think it will take years for them to get caught up," said Kate Betancourt of Suddenlink. "But they can just do a few simple things."

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