Oklahoma parents learn how to guard kids online

BY JANE GLENN CANNON Comments 0
Published: April 18, 2009

Calvin Weeks, founder and president of the Teens Against Predators Foundation, sits in his office. Photo by Jaconna Aguirre, The Oklahoman

NORMAN — Parents — and grandparents — need to get on Facebook and MySpace; they need to learn how to text message, how to "Twitter” and how to use camera phones.

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More Info

BY THE NUMBERS

More than

30 million

Children in the U.S. who use the Internet

97 percent

Percentage of child predators who first "met” their victims online.

65 percent

Percentage of incidents that happen in chat rooms.

24 percent

Percentage of incidents that happen in instant messaging.

1 in 4

Ratio of children ages 10 to 17 have who had an unwanted exposure to sexually explicit pictures.

1 in 17

Ratio of children who have been threatened or harassed.

1 in 33

Ratio of children who have received an aggressive sexual solicitation.

INFORMATION

For more information, call 801-3399 or go online to tapfoundation.org.

Source: Teens Against Predators Foundation

Anything less, and they’re putting their children at risk, says a former law enforcement officer who specializes in cyber crimes against children.

That’s the message Calvin Weeks wants to get across, and a primary reason why he started the Teens Against Predators Foundation.

"In the world of online, your children have thousands of friends — most of them anonymous — but they’re still considered friends. You (as a parent and grandparent) need to be one of those friends,” Weeks said.

By opening the same Web site networking accounts as your child or grandchild, Weeks said, "you can see what they see, and you can know if something inappropriate happens.”

If something inappropriate does occur, notify police, Weeks said.

Weeks is a former law enforcement officer who specialized in computer crimes, especially crimes against children. He now works privately as a computer forensic expert and serves as president of Teens Against Predators.

Vice president of the organization is Bob Peak, a criminal justice instructor who spent seven years as an internal affairs investigator with the state Corrections Department.

While working in law enforcement, the men talked of how much "good” material was available to educate adults and children on Internet crimes.

"But what we realized is that no one was doing a good job of distributing it,” Weeks said. "That’s why we started TAP, and that’s primarily what we do. We try to get the information out there.”

The efforts

The organization holds one large Internet safety workshop in the metro area each year to educate children, parents and grandparents about computer-related crimes, how to prevent them or what to do if they occur.

Between workshops, they offer smaller presentations for schools, organizations and churches.

"We’ll go anywhere anyone wants us,” Weeks said. "Primarily, we focus on the metro area because that’s where we’re based, but we’ll go anywhere in the state, if asked.”

The group also serves victims of cyber crimes.

"We can’t prevent crimes 100 percent, but we can get victims in contact with the resources they need to deal with the crimes if they do occur,” Weeks said.

Weeks said it takes teens working with adults to prevent cyber crimes against children.

"The teens know the technology, and parents and grandparents have the wisdom and ability to give guidance,” Weeks said. "I tell teens it’s their job to educate their parents and grandparents on the technology.”