How would we manage without smartphones, computers, tablets and other electronic devices? We work and play using these devices, keep in touch with family and friends, take pictures, do homework, check the weather and plan trips.
“It’s a great way to keep communication throughout the world and it’s a useful tool," RCMP Const. MJ Burroughs said. "But it can also be scary,”
Burroughs, a school resource officer, presented a digital safety workshop for parents at St. Albert Public Library on March 14.
She focused on several key areas: how to protect youth from cyberbullying; the dangers of sexting and sextortion; privacy and protection; apps that hide information from parents, and how the lie applies to online crimes.
Sextortion is the online blackmail of a person by threats to email or post private sexual photos and/or videos to family, friends and acquaintances. In a PowerPoint/video presentation, Burroughs displayed startling statistics detailing the sharp rise in sextortion cases across Canada.
The Canadian Centre for Child Protection reported teen sextortion cases jumped 150 per cent between December 2021 and May 2022.
Cybertip.ca, known as Canada’s National Tipline for Reporting Online Sexual Exploitation of Children, receives an average of 70 teen sextortion reports per week, or roughly 3,600 annually.
As parents at the meeting appeared shocked by statistics, Burroughs said the pandemic was largely to blame for the sharp rise.
“Teens were at home alone a lot of the time. They didn’t have to sneak out of the house to meet friends. They could communicate from a computer in their bedroom.”
While the public often thinks of females as victims, statistics show 91 per cent of sextortion targets are male. Typically, boys are extorted for money. Girls are blackmailed for more images. And while we often imagine predators as lone wolves, sextortion demands often come from internationally organized criminal networks.
These criminal networks often attempt to make contact and lure youth through their favourite social media platforms. They use any number of methods, including flattery, coercion and offers of money, to urge teens to send them nude or sexual images/videos. Approximately 79 per cent of sextortion occurs on Instagram and Snapchat with Tik Tok a close third.
“Kids don’t use Facebook. It’s more for old people like us,” said Burroughs, drawing one of the evening's few laughs from a crowd of 50-plus parents.
Because users remain anonymous, popular websites and messaging apps attract cyberbullies and adults pretending to be teens. Posting easy-to-access personal information online is risky, and protecting online privacy is an additional responsibility modern-day parents face.
“Never share personal information — phone numbers, addresses, passwords," Burroughs said. "Young people need to be reminded of this. People are always looking for personal information as a way in to commit things like identity fraud.”
Burroughs also warned parents youth often share passwords with friends, but if the relationship sours, online bullying has the potential to start. She encouraged parents to manage privacy settings to deter online predators.
“Use privacy and permission settings for kids. If it’s open, anyone can go in and read what your child is doing, and how they’re doing it. That’s what predators are looking for.”
She said an adolescent’s reaction to cyberbullying and sextortion can take many forms. They include depression, social anxiety, loss of friendships, loneliness, embarrassment, shame, low self-esteem and aggressive behaviour. Some teens even commit suicide.
The best solution, Burroughs believes, is constant, open communication with children.
“I find parents don’t want to get down and dirty in conversations with their kids," she said. "If your kids don’t want to talk, try it around the dinner table or in the car where they can’t escape. Just surprise them. You might be surprised what they tell you.”
As technology develops at exponential rates, apps for hiding information have become more sophisticated and teens are downloading them at record speeds. On many occasions, individuals attempting to lure children and teens will direct them to specific apps so they can hide from parents.
Burroughs mentioned Hide It Pro, an app with 20 million users, available at Google Play and Apple APP store. Data is hidden and is accessible through fingerprint identification or password. It can be used to chat or exchange photos in privacy.
Another privacy app is Keepsafe designed specifically for photos. It boasts “bank-level” or “military-grade” encryption. Two deceptive looking apps, Calculator Pro+ and Calculator#Hide, look like calculators but secretly hide confidential photos, videos, documents and conversations.
“There's Omegle," Burroughs said. "It’s the latest online chatroom created to chat with random strangers. It's mostly live-streamed. Youth like Omegle because it’s exciting not knowing who you are talking to. It’s a neat thing if you can control the information, but it’s risky talking to random strangers.”
Although much of the information appeared bleak, Burroughs offered some practical advice.
“If parents pay the phone bills, the phone is yours and you have a right to look at what you want,” she said.
“Make sure you have the password and if they don’t want to give it, don’t let them have the phone," Burroughs added. "And keep checking it. If they want to have it in their bedroom at night, it can be problematic. You can have the phone so it’s off between certain hours. You might have a few meltdowns when you put rules and boundaries in place, but stick with it. There will be pushback, but stick with it.”
Teens and parents can find help at Kids Help Phone, a crisis line, 1-800-668-688. Cybertip, a reporting agency for inappropriate situations is available at cybertip.ca or 1-800-658-9022. Need Help Now, an organization that assists teens to remove sexual pictures and videos from the Internet, can be reached at needhelpnow.ca.
