Teens and the Internet

March 29, 2006

After several months of researching the trappings of the Internet for teens and kids I have become alarmed over what I have found. The two-part article I wrote delved into the negative aspects of the Internet. It might have even suggested to readers that teens should not be trusted when using the Internet.
In reality I had to simply warn parents, teens and others of the potential hazards that exist on the Internet. Fortunately, most of our kids in Northern Michigan use the Internet appropriately. Sure, there are a few that don’t, but actually it is mostly adults who are using the Internet to prey on our children. So it was the intention of this series to warn parents and teens that Internet predators, purveyors of child and adult pornography, operators of online gambling and even those who promote suicide are targeting kids and teens. 
I heard from a lot of parents, school counselors, law enforcement and even Michigan’s Attorney General. For the most the part they were grateful for the articles. Though my daughter reported back to me that I am not too popular with some of her friends whose parents have made them take down their MySpace sites. I am okay with that; I am supposed to be a parent, not a friend, to these kids anyways.
One of the most interesting comments came from one of my daughter’s friends who said, “Mr. Coates, I didn’t know that parents and teachers could get on to MySpace.”
That is really the crux to all of this. At the end of the day as much as the Internet has put us in the know we really know very little and understand even less.
One mother called asking me (she went online and checked her 15 year old daughter’s MySpace site) how her daughter could have “all of these friends” from all over the world link to her MySpace site, including some “creepy guys.”
I don’t know. The Internet is a lot like AIDS: it spreads quickly. You go online thinking you are having a lot of fun, then go to bed and wake up the next morning and find yourself infected.
But there are safe usages of the Internet that benefit us all. The accessibility of information makes doing homework and often our jobs a lot easier, plus you can plan trips and buy and sell most anything online. The Internet isn’t going away.
I had a parent call suggesting that they should shut down MySpace. That isn’t going to happen. With nearly $600 million invested, Rupert Murdoch, (one of the shrewdest media moguls in the world) isn’t going to allow for that to happen. In the six months he that has owned it, MySpace has already generated $200 million in revenues, and projections are that the company will gross over $400 million this year.
As part two appeared in the series appeared another Northern Michigan man was caught by the Attorney General’s office for trafficking and soliciting sex from kids. He thought he was communicating (he actually sent a video of himself masturbating over the Internet) with a 13 year old girl. Instead, he was communicating with an undercover officer with the Michigan Attorney General’s Child and Public Protection Unit.
“He makes the 85th person we have charged with trying to solicit sex from teenagers over the Internet since we started this task force a couple of years ago,” said Attorney General Cox. “Parents, when it comes to the Internet and your kids error on the side of safety.”
Cox is right. Michigan is loaded with child pornographers. The U.S. Justice Department and the United Nations conducted a study of the world’s leading regions for downloading child pornography and Michigan ranks 10th in the world. Only California and eight other countries rank higher than Michigan when it comes to viewing child pornography online.
The Michigan State Police is taking this seriously as well. Lt. Jim Wolf, head of the Computer Crimes Unit based in Lansing, tracks predators all over the state. His unit assists other agencies in tracking down predators online and he says the numbers of predators in Michigan is mind-boggling.
“It is beyond everyone’s compre-hension,” said Wolf. “We are tracking hundreds and they include teachers, bus drivers, religious leaders. These people really live two lives. They contribute to society by day and stalk --often the same people they serve -- by night.”
But it isn’t just adults. Teen and even pre-teens are getting into trouble with the law. Just two weeks ago a downstate teen posted pictures of his friend having sex with a classmate. The 15-year-old girl in the picture was traumatized and tried to commit suicide. The 17-year-old boy who took the pictures has been arrested and faces three felony charges of manufacturing child pornography, distributing child pornography and use of a computer for child pornography. Instead of graduating with his classmates, he is facing 20 years in prison.  His photos also included pictures of his classmates drinking alcohol; all have been suspended from school activities for two weeks and now have blemishes on their records that will impact their acceptance in to some colleges. 
Two teen girls posted threatening notes on their MySpace sites earlier in the month. Both are facing five years in prison for threatening an act of terrorism.
During my research I found many troubling photographs. The State Police said had I reported my findings to them those kids would have been arrested based on the description of the photographs. One teen from Traverse City posted a picture of herself in her bra and panties. She was standing on her front porch and you can clearly make out the street sign in the background giving away her location to predators.
Besides the call, I received from a school counselor about a pre-teen in Northern Michigan who went online to one of the sites that encourages suicide as an answer. The most troubling call I received was from a mother whose daughter and her friends (15 & 16) took semi-nude photographs of each other. A few weeks later one of the girls became angry with the others and posted these pictures online along with the girl’s phone numbers.
Despite this grim picture the Internet is a wonderful place. I am not scared of it, I am just happy to be better informed.
I’ll be the first to admit that like many I have opened hundreds of e-mails from friends that have contained pornographic pictures and sites and yes, curiosity has gotten the best of me. While I have never paid to access sites, I have forwarded at times some of this crap on to others. Well, after my conversation with the State Police, never again will I go down that road. There is a possibility that some of this crap contains child pornography and I am told that prisoners in Michigan
don’t take kindly to those arrested for child sex crimes.
So, fortunately, my computer has a built-in vasectomy. It is that big X on the control panel I plan to use it a lot more when any junk is e-mailed my way. I also plan to stay in contact with my children about the Internet. Also my work on this project as a journalist is over with. If I see or am sent anything that I feel is in appropriate I plan to call “Report a Cyber Creep” (877) 5CYBER3. I encourage you to do the same.
If you are a school and would like
to have experts come in talk to your students and parents please contact Lt. Jim Wolf with the Michigan State Police at (517) 336. 2010.