We live in a technological age, the advent of the computer has created the second 'industrial revolution'. Computers are the educational tools for children and young people; primary school children are taught how to surf the web.

Those who work with children recognize the potential benefits of computers and especially the internet and most are embracing this technology. Indeed pastor David Yonggi Cho, leader of the largest church, is encouraging churches to use the internet as a communication tool and as a 'virtual church'.

Many organisations find the internet a helpful resource to promote their services. The information 'super highway' can be an effective publicity tool. It is a reflection of the importance that many organisations give to child protection that we receive telephone calls to our helpline at CCPAS wanting advice on children's safety when using the internet. A typical question we are asked is 'Can a church use photographs of children on their church web site?'

Photographs of children on church web sites may be permissible but for the protection of those children, the following guidance better protects children:

• Ensure that you have permission of the parent / person with parental responsibility before taking any photograph. (We have model forms for this).
• Group photographs are always preferable to photographs of individuals.
• Don't give any identifying details of the child eg. this is Becky Smith aged 8 enjoying dancing in St Mary's Youth Group. This information could be used to gain the trust of a child.
• Better to have a group photograph of children dancing with a caption which reads, "a group of children from our youth group enjoying dancing".

You may ask, are these precautions really necessary? Sadly, for all of the benefits that the internet can provide, its medium can also be used by those intent on harming children.

Abusive images of children.

Many people are aware that the internet contains a vast amount of pornographic material. A teacher once said that they typed into a search engine, 'A Mid Summer Nights Dream', doing some research on Shakespeare and they were directed to a pornography site! Pornography and child pornography are not the same. I am unhappy with the term 'child pornography' because many people don't have an understanding of what is meant. Like the phrase 'joyriding' it doesn't actually describe the reality of what it is.

Child pornography is child abuse. It is a record of a child being abused; and that record is captured on either a photograph or a video. (And with the advent of digital cameras those who abuse children can record this without ever having to go to a local photo processing lab to have the images developed.) These are abusive images of children. It is estimated that there are two million such images on the internet.

Child pornography has had a high profile in the news over the past two years. Recently a Catholic priest was prosecuted for having 18,000 abusive images of children on his computer. This may seem a staggering number of images, but with the advancements in computer technology large storage is possible. A floppy disk can contain 700 pages of information; a CD can contain 650 novels. One gigabyte can contain 500,000 pages of information. And the average hard disk is now 20 gigabytes. Computers have CD writers so people can transfer data onto CD's and images can be downloaded fairly quickly. It is now possible to have 'always on' connection to the internet at very high speeds, thanks to cable connections.

CCPAS were contacted by one church seeking advice because the minister had received a telephone call from a member of the church who had just had his home computer taken away by the police as a follow on operation to Operation Cathedral - an investigation into the Wonderland Club. To be a member of the 'Wonderland Club' (an international paedophile ring), all members had to have at least 10,000 images of child pornography.

The police operation resulted in the conviction of 50 people around the world, including seven people from England. These seven men had over 750,000 images of child sexual abuse. A total of 1,263 individual children were identified from the images, of which only 16 children have ever been traced.

The church that contacted us wanted to know how they could work with this man and ensure the protection of children in their church, and we were able to give some practical advice to help ensure this.

It is a criminal offence to possess or publish abusive images of children. If anyone has concern about any site they visit because of its content they can report this to the Internet Watch Foundation (I.W.F.)

They will investigate the web site and inform the internet service provider (I.S.P.) of any concerns as well as the police. Since the I.W.F. was formed in the mid 1990's, several thousand web sites have been closed down because of their offensive content.

We can help children and young people stay safe while they are connected to the internet. This can be achieved through educating children, young people and their parents and carers. The internet, by its very nature, potentially creates an unsafe environment. Adults can feel intimidated because children seem more 'computer literate' than they are. Whilst children need a certain amount of privacy, they also need parental involvement and supervision in their daily lives. Due to a parent feeling less technically proficient than their child/ren when it comes to the internet, it is easy to abdicate responsibility and assume that children are safe when they are 'logged on'.

Childnet International advise that children should never have a computer in their bedroom but should use them in a family room. A connection to the internet means that a child could be inviting anyone into the living room. Many people on the internet are not what they seem.

How can we help children stay safe on the internet?

Two areas where we can have a role in the protection of children who use the internet are in (1) the education of children and adults on the safety aspects and the dangers of the internet, and (2) developing policies/procedures for their own workers concerning computer and related new hi-technologies.

(1) Safety on the internet - advice for children / young people

The following should be discussed with children and young people:

Personal Information

• Never tell anyone you meet on the internet your home address, your telephone number or any other identifying information e.g. church name or youth group name, unless your parent/carer gives you permission. Be careful if ever a web site asks you to type in your name and address in order to receive anything.
• Never send anyone your picture, credit card or bank details, or anything else, without first checking with your parent/carer.
• Never give your password to ANYONE! (Even your best friend!)
• Always be yourself and do not pretend to be anyone or anything you are not.
• Always remember if someone makes you an offer that seems too good to be true, it probably is. Be careful if you are offered any gifts while online. They could contain harmful material such as pornography or viruses.
• Never arrange to meet anyone in person without first agreeing it with your parent/carer or children's/youth leader, and get them to come along to the first meeting, which should always be in a public place.
• Agree to a contract with your parent / carers or with your children's/youth leader on the use of the internet e.g. length of time on the net, sites which you intend to visit, behaviour whilst online etc.

Chat Rooms

• Never stay in a chat room or conference if someone says or writes something which makes you feel uncomfortable or worried, and always report your concerns to your parent/carer or children's/youth leader.
• Check that any chat room you enter is regulated and run by a reputable company or organisation which monitors activity.
• Remember that Chat Rooms are 'public places' and that you may not know the true identity of anyone you meet in a chat room.

Emails

• Never respond to nasty, suggestive or rude e-mails or postings in Usernet Groups.
• When receiving emails delete attachments from strangers without opening them, they may contain viruses that can damage your computer. Make sure you know where files are from before you download them. They may also have viruses.
• Never send chain letters via the internet. Chain letters are forbidden on the Internet. Inform your parents/carers who can then notify your I.S.P. if you receive one.

( 2) Policies on the use of the internet

Youth workers/children's workers are used to communicating with their groups via post and telephone call but what about email and text services? What about Internet Relay Chat (I R C) like messenger or AIM? Can youth workers counsel young people via email? These areas need addressing and procedures put in place.

• Youth and children's workers can play a vital role in the education of children and youth on safe surfing - it's about getting involved in where they are at. Help parents to do the same.
• Parents can be helped by showing them how to use parental controls. A number of internet service providers (ISP's) provide filters which govern whether certain sites can be accessed. There are also a number of pieces of software which will allow for this also such as Netnanny, Cyberpatrol or Surfwatch etc.
• Help children and young people draw up a set of rules for their use of the internet. One way of helping children with this is to use the analogy of the 'information superhighway'. In the same way that we teach children to cross the road (in my day it was the Tufty Club and the Green Cross Code) we can teach children how to safely use the superhighway and stay safe.
• Many churches are running cyber cafés, have their own web site. Workers communicate with young people using email. Churches therefore have a responsibility to help children and young people with safety tips. If you are providing web access e.g. cyber café, ensure that all users complete an internet permission form, including parental permission.
• Organisations should get their web site rated with the Internet Content Rating System (I.C.R.A.). Some filtering software will filter out content not rated by I.C.R.A. Parents can be helped to set up Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Communicator browser software to filter content dependent upon the ICRA rating. Browsers used by I.S.P's such as AOL also have parental controls to ensure that only appropriate web sites are visited.
• Youth workers should ensure that any communication they have with young people is always public, not private. If workers are sending emails to young people e.g. to remind them of up coming youth meetings, ensure that the church leaders are aware you are communicating with young people via email and that the parents are happy with this. The content should be 'public'. Ideally send group emails rather than individual emails.
• Chat rooms and instant message services - churches need to be aware of the potential dangers from these, especially if youth workers are communicating with young people through them. Again keep everything public. Youth workers should keep to public areas in chat rooms and ensure that only moderated chat rooms are used.
• Instant messenger services are private by nature and care should be used if communicating with young people using this medium. There is the ability to save conversations as text files. Again churches should have protocols about the use of I.M. services.

Churches and organisations are addressing these issues to ensure that children are protected when using the internet. Good internet child protection is essential. In considering the above we can make the web a safer place for children to explore. The internet contains a rich and vast resource of material and is an excellent form of communication.

Contact us as CCPAS if you require any further advice on making the net safer for your church, family or group.

 

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