There are different types of cyberexploitation of children and teens. Some cyberpredators target chat rooms, posing as minors. They encourage children to undress in front of their webcams, for example. Some teenage girls are offered the opportunity to make some quick money and end up involved in prostitution on apparently cool sites operated by street gang members.

It’s up to you as parents to make sure your children are safe online by being aware and keeping an eye on the sites they visit and the applications they use. You can take action. Here are some things you can do to protect your children:

Q. My son regularly uses peer-to-peer file sharing software, and he recently downloaded a film that included child pornography images. What should I do?

A. Cases involving peer-to-peer technology are extremely difficult to investigate, but this is the information you need if you decide to alert the police:

• The name of the downloaded file
• The user name (it appears in the user column)
• The person’s IP address (if available)

Q. I was surfing the net and I ended up on a child pornography site.

A. Write down the exact address and send it to Cybertip. If you know about a child who is in immediate danger or risk, call 911.

Q. I suspect that some users in a chatroom are involved in juvenile prostitution. How should I report this?

A. Try to get as much information as you can to relay to your local police service:

• nicknames
• email addresses
• comments
• details about their user profile

With the MIRC client program, for example, the”/whois ” command provides complete information about a user.

If your suspicions arise from a conversation you had, try to save the conversation. To save the conversation using MIRC, use the “/log on” command.

All software programs offer identification and save features with different levels of detail. Refer to your chat program documentation.

To find out more

Cybertip – Click here to report
 

To see some real cases of cyberexploitation, go to the RCMP’s Internet 101 site, which has extensive information on the topic :

Internet 101