Victoria Laurie | May 17, 2006
POLICE and education authorities in Western Australia have launched the nation's first joint effort to educate children about cyber predators.
Over 250 children from public and private state schools around Perth will go online today with police and internet safety experts across Australia, asking questions like "Is it OK to give out my address?" and "What do I do if I'm worried about someone on the chatroom?".Children are easily persuaded to give out details without realising predators can trace their whereabouts, said Detective Inspector Kellie Properjohn from the Western Australian major crime division.
"It's like going fishing in a trout farm. Cyber predators often want to meet within an hour of making contact online, and they are willing to travel from interstate or overseas to meet face to face," she said.
In one actual case, only five lines of dialogue had been exchanged before a cyber predator asked to meet the child.
Last week a Queensland man was accused of flying to Perth to meet a child he wrote to via an online chatroom. The state's police Cyber Predator Team has charged the man with using the internet to procure a child for sexual activity.
He is alleged to have flown to Perth to meet his online contact, who turned out to be a police officer posing as a child.
Education department spokesperson Jeanette Hazelby said the internet was a valuable educational tool but children urgently needed to understand its risks.
"Don't think you know who you are talking to, never give out personal information, and never agree to meet people unless in the company of an adult." Detective Inspector Properjohn said parents needed to be more vigilant about their child's computer use.
"Would you give kids a powertool to make a birdbox without giving them safety instructions to use it?" She said cyber predators were sophisticated but used a predictable pattern to extract information.