Cyber Safety: A Lesson For Parents and Children

Across the country, stories abound of cyber predators who commit crimes against children and teenagers.

In a local effort to educate parents and help them protect their children, Dets. Phil Dubord and Margaret Grow of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office are performing cross-county presentations at schools to talk openly with parents about how to deal with issues such as sexting and cyber bullying.

A "Cyber Awareness Program" will be held at 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 23 at Gaither High School, 16200 N. Dale Mabry Highway. The program, in its second year at Gaither, is free and open to the public.

Dubord, who works in the internet predator unit at the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, said his unit's mission is twofold: to locate online predators and arrest them, and to reach out to the public - from churches to Girl Scout troops - to do programs like the one on Monday.

"We talk about everything from social networking to behavioral aspects of a predator, some of the victimologies and traits of a child victim," he said. "We also have free software we bring with us that looks for Internet history, pictures and movies."

Marie Whelan, who is Gaither's principal, said the program is being sponsored by both the sheriff's office at the PTSA at Gaither.

"Kids don't know the dangers of the Internet," she said. "We hope people come out, because it'll be very informative."

Dubord said he hopes parents come to the program so they can further understand the ins and outs of the Internet.

"They need to understand that kids can get lost in cyberspace," he said. "They need to focus on taking control of the technology at home, and the mobile technology that kids have."