Teen Attends Internet Safety Summit

By KEITH ZIRKLE

By Keith Zirkle

Teen Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C.

I AM AN AVERAGE teenager when it comes to Internet safety. I have heard the advice, seen the warnings and been told the horror stories of what happens when you go online – they’re plastered over the news: the girl who was abducted by her online buddy; the boy who met his MySpace friend at the mall and never came home, etc.

But for some reason those tales of terror never really sunk in like the stories you hear in elementary school about stranger danger. It just doesn’t seem likely that the person you’re chatting with on AOL Instant Messenger is Hannibal Lecter .

That was until I met Miss America 2007 at Cox Communications’ second annual National Teen Summit on Internet Safety last month in the nation’s capital. Lauren Nelson was a moderator at the summit, which I was selected to attend along with 13 other teenagers from as far away as California and as close as Fairfax.

The purpose of the event was to pick high school students’ brains about issues concerning the Internet. Cox, after all, provides Internet service, and, with all the recent news stories on the dangers of online networking sites ( such as MySpace and Facebook), the cable provider wanted to find out how to make the Internet a safer place.

Cox already has a Web site, www.cox.com/takecharge , devoted to Internet safety. Here parents can learn stuff like chat lingo (lol = laugh out loud) and how to work parental controls.

The site is a step in the right direction, but Internet safety education needs to be in the classrooms.

On the summit’s first full day, we met at the National Press Club to discuss the issues with Nelson and “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh .

We sat at an oval table and listened and talked about cyber bullying, networking sites, about being contacted by strangers and posting personal information online.

All of us were excited to be at the same table with Nelson and Walsh, a children’s advocate since 1981 when his son, Adam, was abducted and murdered. It was through his personal tragedy that he started his TV show and helped pass the “Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.”

Amid our excitement, we also knew we were talking about important stuff.

Nelson drove that point home when she told a personal story. At 13, she and her friends visited a chat room online during a sleepover, and a man contacted them there, asking for their ASL (age, sex, location). They gave it to him. A week later, she received graphic pictures from the man and reported it to her parents.

Many of us said that as we get older we aren’t sharing as much personal information on the Web as we did as kids. One of us even knew someone who went to a school dance with her MySpace boyfriend.

We also talked about the importance of parental involvement.

The more parents are involved, the less likely a teenager is to be in harms’ way. Parents should ask questions; they should get interested in their children’s lives and those conversations should not turn into lectures and interrogations.

Many of the teens, including myself, believed the summit was beneficial and that education is the key.

“I thought it was very informative, and I hope I can share my experience with my school and the rest of my district,” said Daniel “D.J.” Bruner, 16, of Surprise, Ariz.

Laura Redfern, 18, of Las Vegas described it as a “once in a lifetime experience.”

Keith Zirkle, a rising junior at First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach, castlewriter221@aol.com

(c) 2007 Virginian – Pilot. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.