Parents and teachers learned about internet safety for kids

Megan Suitor

On January 18 Bon Accord Community School hosted two members of the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit to educate parents and staff on the dangers of online sexual exploitation involving students in our communities.

Sgt Jon Morrison is the ALERT ICE Unit Commander, and Sgt Kerry Shima is the ALERT ICE Operations NCO, both working in the North Unit, which serves Alberta north of Red Deer.

Bon Accord Community School Principal Kessia Brenneis and Trustee Cindy Briggs were both in attendance and expressed their thoughts on the importance of providing knowledge about this issue to parents of students in the community.

“Our students are getting on technology younger and younger,” explained Brenneis. “And sometimes they have older siblings.”

“Information is knowledge,” added Briggs.

The presentation was full of information and facts that were surprising and shocking to some. Morrison pushed the importance of parents and teachers understanding the real issues and dangers that children can face online.

“The increase in offenders and investigations is up 160 percent,” said Morrison. “We can’t arrest our way out of these issues. That’s why these presentations are so important, because we need parents and teachers out there as a force multiplier.”

File intake by the Northern Alberta Unit increased from 633 cases in 2018 to 1452 in 2022, partly because internet infrastructure around the world got better during the Covid pandemic. An important aspect for parents and children to understand is that with the internet, there is no way to know where the person on the other end of the chat is located.

“When we deal with a file, sometimes we don’t know where in the world a suspect is, and ICE units across the world will work together. Because the internet doesn’t have regional boundaries,” explained Morrison.

 As well as statistics about cases and information on what the ALERT ICE Unit does, community members in attendance also had their eyes opened to the vast array of apps that children are now using. During an interactive part of the presentation, the logos of a variety of apps were shown, with audience members being able to identify roughly half. Shima then explained that all of the apps shown were ones that they see in cases regularly and that children know and are using.

“Parental controls work,” said Shima, “but it’s just one more thing that you have to keep track of. Kids are being tricked into these situations because they don’t understand what’s happening until it is too late.”

A point that was made is that stranger danger is still a very real issue, but it’s evolved away from the stereotypical ‘white van’ issue to one where children are talking to strangers online.

“The stranger danger is still there,” said Morrison, “but that van or dark alley is now in your living room on that tablet.”

The big takeaway from the presentation was that increased awareness and knowledge were the best ways to combat internet child exploitation crime. For parents to sit down with their children and have discussions about being safe while online and getting to know the baseline of their children so that parents are aware of any red flags. 

“If you take anything away, it’s just sit down with your kids,” said Shima. “It’s not that we want to instill fear in kids, but you don’t know who is on the other end.”

“The biggest takeaway for me is building trust with our students,” added Brenneis at the end of the presentation. “We can give them lessons in class, but you (parents) are their first safe contact.”

A follow-up presentation with the Saffron Centre will be hosted at Bon Accord Community School on Monday, January 30. This presentation will help parents become prepared to have these important conversations with their kids.

For more information, parents can access cybertip.ca or parents.thorn.org.