Forum Aims To Help Parents Keep Children Safe Online

Thanks to the Internet, all the world is just a click away.

It’s a wonderful thing for an inquisitive young mind. It can also be dangerous.

That’s why Saline Area Schools is partnering with the and Pittsfield Public Safety Department, the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office and the Washtenaw Area Council for Children to offer a presentation on cyber safety at 7 p.m. Wednesday at . The panel hopes to build on awareness on safety, cyber bullying, online predators, online privacy, sexting, as well as the laws surrounding the issue and advice on what parents can do to protect their children.

“There are online predators. This does happen in Saline. This is serious business,” said Saline Superintendent Scot Graden. “We’re trying to raise awareness. We don’t often talk about student behavior online, and we want to make sure parents are aware of the risks.”

Graden said the panel will discuss everything from protecting children from on-line predators to correcting inappropriate behavior.

“We’re dealing with examples of inappropriate behavior brought into the school on a nearly daily basis, whether it’s something posted on the Internet or something someone texted about someone,” he said. “It’s an emerging problem and it’s something that some families are bringing to us because they don’t know how to deal with it.”

Next fall, the school district is kicking off a program called Stop. Think. Connect! Graden hopes those three words will enter the mind of students whenever they log on to the Internet or text a friend.

“We’ll be asking our students to stop and think about the places they visit online, the information they share and the online communities in which the participate even before they connect to the Internet,” said Graden, The program will be aimed at students in grades 5-12.

Texting is one of the most popular forms of communication between teenagers. According to one study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, four percent of cell phone-owning teens ages 12-17 say they have sent sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images or videos of themselves to someone else by text messaging. The same survey reported 15 percent of teens say they have received images from someone they know. As the practice of “sexting” has become more common, some teens are feeling pressure to share these types of images, the study asserts. The same study reports that teens who are more intense users of cell phones are more likely to receive sexually suggestive images.