Online safety measures increased for teacher-surfers

    Preventive measures in Internet safety are being taught to all teachers in Fairfax County Public Schools in partnership with a non-profit foundation called i-SAFE Inc. in an effort to forestall Internet predators from taking advantage of FCPS students.  i-SAFE Inc. is a leader in Internet safety education. 
   
    All FCPS teachers, staff, and personnel are being asked to be prepared to address Internet safety in classrooms, school and community settings in upcoming years.

    By law, passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 2006, all FCPS personnel must complete i-SAFE’s Professional Development Training Program by Oct. 1, 2008.  The training is made up of six online video training sessions on Internet safety.

    “Each session should not take more than an hour to complete, so it should take less than six hours to complete the entire training,” said Rebecca Bartelt, AHS’ School Based Technology Specialist.

    “I had a free weekend because it was raining, so I just knocked it out real fast,” said English teacher Nancy Grim.

    Once completing the training, an electronic certificate of completion will be available as proof.

    “After hearing about some of the things that happen [online], you really have to think about the information you put out there.  I know that those kinds of people are out there, but it doesn’t really hit you until you hear real life stories about it,” said Grim.

    One video tells the story of a girl involved in an online FBI experience. “Imagine your playing in your soccer game for your school team and you look towards the sidelines and see a strange man staring and smiling at you.  You think nothing of it and finish the game and then go home.

    “Later that night, just after dinner, your parents call you from your room to talk to you.  You go downstairs and see the same man who was staring at you during your soccer game.  The man introduces himself as a man who you met on the Internet, and confessed that he was not the 14-year-old boy who he said he was.  He also confessed that he was an FBI agent.  He learned your name, age, sex, school, interests and hobbies all via the Internet and through online conversations with you.  He found out where your soccer game was, and then followed you home; using common tools that anyone has access to.”

    The state of Virginia is trying to cut down on the number of teenagers becoming victims of online predators.  However, it is becoming harder to force that number to decline, with all the new online features and websites that make it easier for online predators to access children.  For example, online predators usually meet their victims in public chat rooms, and then they move their conversations to private chat rooms or through instant messaging.
   
    Conversations then shift to email, telephone or even face-to-face.  With each step, predators establish closer relationships with their victims.  Eventually, the victims feel connected with the predator.

    In one case, a seventeen-year-old girl had a sexual relationship with a 24-year-old man who had a wife and kids.  The girl became too connected with the man and went missing for three days.  Using her information off of her websites and emails, police gathered that she was seeing a man she met on the Internet.  The police found the girl, strangled to death, in a park.

    To help prevent more cases like this, starting 2009, all students will have to be trained on i-Safe.  The training will be personalized for each grade level through an integrated K-12 curriculum.