Terence Fisher, a special agent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Computer Crimes Division, spoke recently at a churchwide prayer breakfast sponsored by Antioch Baptist Church, North. Mr. Fisher focused on the growing phenomenon of social networking and the intending implications of leaving your child unsupervised while online. Thus, if you are a parent with small children, then you should monitor their behavior so they won't accidentally access a website that offers those inherent dangers.

Mr. Fisher spoke to an audience of concerned parents in order to placate their fears of child predators who are becoming increasingly aggressive as far as social networking is concern. "My 15-year-old son has become somewhat of a computer geek when it comes to showcasing his ample skills while online. My wife and I has to constantly monitor his behavior while he is accessing the internet."

Additionally, websites like Myspace.com and Facebook.com is very popular with the 11 to 19 year old age groups. So it's not uncommon for a child to commence an online conversation with a total stranger. These interacted forms of communication comes in the guise of pedophiles, cyberbullies and identification or ID thieves; they exploit the innocency of children by exposing them to pornographic images and inappropriate content. And until recently, there has been no stopping of these cybercriminals from sending those images and content to under-aged minors.

Furthermore, identification thieves are becoming notorious by preying on the information they find on children's websites by coping that data directly off the webpage for illegal purposes. This information may be in the form of a child's vital statistics or even a photograph. So Parents beware of this ever-increasing danger from the internet community.

Still another inherent danger that your child may face is cyberbullying. This may seems like a harmless prank in some ways, but from a realistic standpoint can offer very severe repercussions. For example, the anonymity of cyberbullying makes it easier for your child to be victimized or to present threats to his peers and thus, leading to a person to person confrontation when the victim and the bully meet.

Several measures were adopted as to how to keep our children safe while online. One of these measures was forming an Internet Safety Task Force to monitor our children's internet activity. This measure was put on the agenda for the next monthly meeting.

At the conclusion of this monthly event, these concerned parents rosed to their feet and was led in prayer by one of the minister of the church. The meeting disband yet the parents left the church renewed in their minds of knowing what to do to not only to safeguard their children from these internet predators, but also themselves as well.

Learn more about this author, Roger Crain.
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