Falls Village talk warns of online risks for teens

FALLS VILLAGE — Maintaining online safety for young people in northwest Connecticut requires an understanding of the dangers of being online and the willingness to plan ahead for when – not if – a bad situation arises.

That was the message from Project SAGE’s Linda Ciano, who spoke at the David M. Hunt Library Thursday evening, Nov. 20, in Falls Village, part of an ongoing effort to educate families about online safety across the Northwest Corner.

The talk drew parents and educators from several Region One towns – communities where many residents rely heavily on digital communication to stay connected.

Ciano said cyberbullying can occur on any online device and in any format - social media, text message, etc. This distinguishes cyberbullying from its real-life counterpart.. “Cyberbullying follows the victim into the home.”

Over half of children between the ages of 14 and 17 report some experience with cyberbullying, and it is about evenly split between girls and boys.

Victims can become antisocial, develop substance abuse problems, and express suicidal ideation.

And while young people grow up and move past any bullying in real life, cyberbullying is what Ciano calls a “repetitive harm.”

“It’s up there forever.”

Online predators

Victims of cyberbullying usually know their attackers. However, this is not the case for those children who are lured into compromising situations by online predators.

Ciano showed a slide showing a plain white van, puppies and candy.

She explained that these are the images associated with predators, and that children are taught from an early age to be wary of the man in the white van with the puppies etc.

“But the internet brings strangers into the home all the time.”

Even in small Northwest Corner towns, where families often assume they know their neighbors, online spaces create risks that feel far removed from semi-rural life.

Online predators and groomers often follow a script, and gradually increase the level of intimacy with their victims.

Ciano said that teenagers don’t think of online strangers the same way they think of the “man in the van.”

Often youngsters will be gradually convinced to send their new online “friends” nude photos or videos.

The predator then threatens to make the images public unless the victim sends more, or demands money to not post them.

The advent of artificial intelligence makes all of this more complicated, because AI can create a convincing nude image of someone with nothing but a photo of someone’s face.

Ciano said the key to dealing with these online threats is to recognize the likelihood that something bad will occur, and to be ready for it.

Online safety

Everyone should practice basic online safety, including setting everything to “private,” turning off location tools, and only following people they know in real life on social media.

Beyond that, Ciano said a good practice is to advise young people not to send nude photos of themselves to anybody.

“If the person in the photo is underage then it is child pornography,” she said flatly, adding that anyone who sends it along or has it downloaded on a device is going to be in big trouble if it is discovered.

Parents and children can create a family agreement on how to proceed in the event of a cyber “accident.”

To manage the situation, Ciano recommends the following actions for children:

1) Stop responding. Some predators will give up and seek easier prey.

2) Preserve evidence. Ciano said the urge is to delete everything, but it is important to preserve records of the encounters using screenshots, external drives, and printing out hard copies.

3) Call in your team – the group of trusted adults that the children and parents identified in their safety plan.

The adults need to:

1) Believe the child.

2) Validate the child’s experience and show empathy

3) Provide support

4) Report the predatory activity to the appropriate authorities.

Ciano said the federal Take It Down Act went into effect in May.

The legislation makes it a federal crime to distribute intimate images of people without their permission — including authentic images and images created by artificial intelligence.

The law also establishes a process for filing a request to remove images within 48 hours, and creates a national standard and mechanism where none existed.

Ciano said that Project SAGE is now in its fourth year of talking to Region One students in grades 6 through 12 about online safety.

She said today’s seniors are far more aware of online safety issues than their counterparts from four years ago, and she expects this to continue to improve.

“This is a seven year conversation.”