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| The threat from chat |
May 1, 2007 |
Online chat rooms can expose kids to dangerous predators. But how big is the threat and how is more technology the answer?
By Peter Wolchak
Do your kids hang out in online chat rooms? Should they?
Ask the cops who work the missing children or pornography beats and the answer is no or, at most, they say access to chat rooms should be vigourously supervised.
The problem is anonymity. In a chat room “Ben” can be a 12- year-old kid interested in basketball and Lifehouse or a 55-yearold man looking for a vulnerable kid. According to an FBI report, “Most children that fall victim to computer sex offenders spend large amounts of time online, particularly in chat rooms. Computer sex offenders almost always meet potential victims via chat rooms.”
But if technology created this problem, perhaps technology can also reduce the danger. One company working on that solution is AdZone Research in Calverton, N.Y. Its Online Predator Profiling System (OPPS) is a searchable database of conversations collected from chat rooms. The Canadian and American sites indexed by OPPS were identified as problematic by law enforcement officials. The data is updated every 24 hours and police departments can search for a chat username, troll through all the content during a specific timeframe or look for a worrisome word or phrase such as “What is your ASL?” which means age, sex and location.
Access to the system costs police departments US$999 per year. Using it, police conduct three basic types of investigation, according to company vice-president and managing director Dan Wasserman. The first type is called course of conduct, an afterthe- fact investigation that looks for evidence of predatory behaviour over time.
The second kicks in immediately after a child is reported missing. If officers discover the child used a particular chat room screen name, they can search for related activity to get a lead on where the kid went or with whom. “The question becomes, did that missing child talk to a known pedophile, set up a liaison or establish a meeting place? This can help you recover that child in a very timely manner,” Wasserman said.
The third investigative type is proactive, in which police specify certain words or phrases and OPPS sends out an alert when these occur. Up to five alert criteria can be set and notifications are sent to up to three e-mail addresses.
Powerful evidence
Arni Stinnissen is a detective staff sergeant in charge of e-crime with the Ontario Provincial Police. E-crime is a forensic unit that examines computers seized from accused offenders or owned by victimized children. Evidence gleaned from chat room conversations can be extremely important, he said. “When you go through these computers, you see the victims and you see the perpetrators. You look at both and you see everything that happens in one of these crimes. You see where they’ve been on the Internet, their e-mail, their chat conversations and instant messages. And of course, some of these investigations are hugely punishing for the officers. Some of what we see brings you to tears…the things that happen to these young victims.”
But the work is critical, Stinnissen said, because online forums can be dangerous places for young people. “With other online activities you pretty much know who you are talking to. With MSN, for example, you have a buddy list. If you are text messaging on a cellphone, you know who you are sending to. But in a chat room, unless you know a person ahead of time and you meet there, you have no control at all over who you are talking to.”
And he said many young people have a weak understanding of online threats. Much of his job involves educating kids about the Internet, and recently he toured northern Ontario schools, talking to 11,000 kids in grades six to eight. What he heard was worrisome.
More than half of the kids have Web cameras on their computers and “we asked ‘How many of you have had a conversation using the Web cam in which you can’t see the other person but he or she can see you?’ Half of the kids put up their hands. That means they are giving out their digital images to strangers. That is very scary.
“It amazes me what kids do and what they believe. Some feel that they live in a small, safe cocoon on the Internet, and that’s not true.”
Threat level disagreement
But Valerie Steeves, a professor in the faculty of social sciences, department of criminology at the University of Ottawa, said youth are far more Web savvy than most people believe. “If you look at the research, the vast majority of kids know the rules about protecting themselves from online predators and they understand the risks. At the same time, they may choose to go to chat rooms, try on identities, pretend they are older or younger, that type of thing,” she said. “But they are doing this while being aware of safety rules.”
Furthermore, Steeves said much of the concern regarding sexual predators is misplaced. The real danger is closer at hand. “Harm to one kid is one kid too many, and chat rooms are probably the most problematic (source of online threat) simply because they are so public,” she said. “But the vast majority of incidents with pedophiles come from people you know and trust — the coach, the priest, the cop. It’s not online. The online pedophile is much less of a risk than the real-world pedophile.
“Some of these discussions about online stalkers assume all kids are at risk of being pulled through their computers at any second and attacked. But the social science evidence indicates that this is still rare behaviour.”
Steeves emphasizes simple user education over automated scanning tools like OPPS. “State surveillance is not going to protect kids — in the real world or the online world. Adults around them, community support and teachers who care will protect them. If you have rules in the home kids are less likely to go to dangerous sites in the first place.”
And she said there is a bigger issue here: is it acceptable for police and for private companies to monitor online conversations? “In a democracy, it is important that you limit the power of the state to invade citizens’ privacy. When people start to conduct conversations on the Internet they become visible to the state, which now monitors all kinds of discussions that would normally be closed to it. Whereas before the state would require reasonable and probable grounds indicating a crime has occurred before proving to a court it should put citizens under surveillance, our new technological framework puts all of that into question.
“So do we allow the fear we have of the online environment to override the balance between democratic freedom and state surveillance that we have worked out over the last 250 years?”
But the OPP’s Stinnissen argues a system like OPPS is not a fundamental departure from existing police procedures.
“We monitor activity on highways, for example; we look in pawnshops or flea markets to monitor what’s there. Or think about Crime Stoppers: we encourage people to call in when they think a crime has occurred. This is like an automated Crime Stoppers.”
SIDEBARS
“Many parents give their kids total computer access, often because they are oblivious to the dangers.”
— Arni Stinnissen, detective staff sergeant, OPP
“Children are not being abducted by the Pied Piper and therefore we have to give away our civil liberties in order to protect them. We need a considered discussion on the balance between state surveillance and democratic freedoms.”
— Valerie Steeves, professor, University of Ottawa
Government advice
From cyberwise.ca, operated by the Government of Canada: Chat rooms are areas where people interested in a particular subject can meet and talk using the computer. Once inside the room you can talk to anyone, but you don’t really know who the people are, because everyone uses a “handle” or nickname. That’s why chat rooms can be very dangerous places.
Some seriously weird people often use chat rooms to get in touch with kids. We call them cyberpredators. They may pretend to be someone your age or someone else you might be interested in meeting. They will talk to you about the things you like and pretend to be sympathetic to your problems. They will try to make you think that they are your best friend and understand you better than anyone else.
Why would anyone do this? Because they want to trick you into talking about sex or, worse, meeting them in person so they can molest you.
Chat rooms are dangerous places for children. You shouldn’t use chat rooms unless your parents or guardians know about it.
If you do use chat rooms, be smart.
> Never give out any personal information about yourself.
> Be suspicious of anyone who tries hard to be your friend.
> Never ever agree to meet someone you met in a chat room.
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