- Messages
- 78,654
- Reaction score
- 42,998
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=403276&page=1
Abduction Game Isn't Child's Play
Aim Is to Teach Kids Dangers of Chat Room Predators
Child at a Computer
By DEAN SCHABNER
Jan. 26, 2005 — When Nancy Teasley heard the rumors that two of the girls in her sixth-grade computer technology class at Weatherford, Okla., Middle School, had been propositioned online, she was glad for a game that she'd had her students play.
The computer game is called "Missing." Developed by a Vancouver, British Columbia, company, it is now distributed free in the United States to schools and police departments by Web Wise Kids, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Ana, Calif.
Teasley decided to use the game in her class after learning about it from the Oklahoma Department of Education. "I felt it was something our kids could benefit from."
She said the game provides an up-to-date answer to the age-old problem of how to keep children safe from the cunning people who want to harm them.
"Twenty years ago we talked to our kids about how to protect themselves if they were out playing or in the park," she said. "But with the Internet, it's a different thing, and kids have to learn the dangers are out there."
In Camas, Wash., police Officer Tim Dickerson had been trying to get Camas Middle School to include the computer game in its curriculum. His effort got a boost when the reality of the dangers to children struck close to home.
"A young lady living just outside our town was a victim of an Internet predator," said Dickerson, the school's resource officer. "That wasn't the reason we did it, it was coincidental, but it certainly helped us get the interest of the parents and the school district. Everybody was just ready to jump on board."
Playing With Trouble
The dangers are no secret. According to a Department of Justice report, one in five children under 18 who use the Internet has been propositioned online, and according to Nielson NetRatings there are some 20 million children ages 12 to 17 who surf the Web.
When the Girl Scout Research Institute polled girls about their Internet use, 30 percent said they had been sexually harassed online, but only 7 percent said they told their parents.
According to Pew Internet, nearly 60 percent of teenagers say they have received an e-mail or instant message from a stranger, and half of all teen Internet users say they have sent messages to people they never met.
Despite all this, the same study found more than half of the teenagers online say they do not feel any concern about being contacted by people they do not know.
Related Stories
* Controversial Web Site Claims to 'Out' Would-Be Child Molesters
Top Stories
* Microsoft Formally Launches Search Engine
* Sun Microsystems Unveils Grid Computing
* HP Propose Alternative to Transistors
The game, Dickerson said, should help to change those youngsters' nonchalant attitude.
"It's a new approach to a very old problem," he said. "The Internet didn't invent pedophiles, but they use it."
'Kids Need to Be Scared'
Monique Nelson, a spokeswoman for Web Wise Kids, said the game helps to overcome some of the illusions that the Internet allows predators to perpetrate, illusions that were harder to even create when they needed to approach their potential victims in person.
"Kids need to be scared," Nelson said. "They take the Internet, chat rooms and e-mail too lightly. The 'stranger-danger' thing doesn't work with the Internet. As soon as a kid makes a friend in a chat room, that person is no longer a stranger to them."
Dickerson said that in his experience with children at the Camas school this fall, the game succeeds where parents, teachers, police or other adults lecturing fails.
"With kids at the sixth-grade level, when you talk to them about something like that, it's, 'Predator blah blah blah, Internet blah blah blah,'" he said. "We sat them down at the game and it took about six hours and I would say there was about 90 percent total involvement."
Playing Cop
In the game, children play the role of police investigators, trying to capture a predator who has abducted a child before it is too late.
The game starts by showing just how easy it is for predators to pretend to be kids in youth-oriented chat rooms. To begin, kids in the "Missing" game introduce themselves to other chat room user. But when they click on user screen names, one will reveal an adult — and not just an adult, an actual convicted child molester dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit.
Once the predator has identified his target, made contact and then convinced the youngster to meet him in the real world, the chase is on. Children playing the game take the role of police investigators, trying to identify and decipher clues.
When the game is over, the children have to take home a questionnaire to discuss with their parents and together develop an Internet safety plan, including issues such as what to do if a stranger makes contact with them or they are asked to meet somebody in person.
Skirting Controversy
Despite its subject matter, Nelson said the game is "age specific," meaning that while children know that the young victim has fallen into the hands of a "predator," there is no mention of what specifically might be happening.
The all-too-common headlines, though, are there for children to see.
While Teasley's class was working through the program, the body of a girl who had been abducted in Texas was found in a field just 17 miles away from Weatherford.
"It really hit home for them," she said.
Dickerson did not want to leave to chance whether the children using the game would understand what was going on, but he also was aware that the parents in the community might not be pleased to have their children told about sexual predators.
"We wanted to be pretty up-front about what the consequences of getting involved with a pedophile are," he said.
So he had a meeting with a select group of teachers, administrators, community leaders and parents. He gave them the presentation he wanted to give to the students, then had them play the game — and he got their support.
Then he invited all the parents of the children in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades to attend a presentation on the game. He said 40 parents came, and one wanted to be with her child when the game was played, and another did not want her child to play the game in school — but she asked for a copy so they could play it together at home.
"We were all in favor of that," Dickerson said. "The game is very user-friendly."
Abduction Game Isn't Child's Play
Aim Is to Teach Kids Dangers of Chat Room Predators
Child at a Computer
By DEAN SCHABNER
Jan. 26, 2005 — When Nancy Teasley heard the rumors that two of the girls in her sixth-grade computer technology class at Weatherford, Okla., Middle School, had been propositioned online, she was glad for a game that she'd had her students play.
The computer game is called "Missing." Developed by a Vancouver, British Columbia, company, it is now distributed free in the United States to schools and police departments by Web Wise Kids, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Ana, Calif.
Teasley decided to use the game in her class after learning about it from the Oklahoma Department of Education. "I felt it was something our kids could benefit from."
She said the game provides an up-to-date answer to the age-old problem of how to keep children safe from the cunning people who want to harm them.
"Twenty years ago we talked to our kids about how to protect themselves if they were out playing or in the park," she said. "But with the Internet, it's a different thing, and kids have to learn the dangers are out there."
In Camas, Wash., police Officer Tim Dickerson had been trying to get Camas Middle School to include the computer game in its curriculum. His effort got a boost when the reality of the dangers to children struck close to home.
"A young lady living just outside our town was a victim of an Internet predator," said Dickerson, the school's resource officer. "That wasn't the reason we did it, it was coincidental, but it certainly helped us get the interest of the parents and the school district. Everybody was just ready to jump on board."
Playing With Trouble
The dangers are no secret. According to a Department of Justice report, one in five children under 18 who use the Internet has been propositioned online, and according to Nielson NetRatings there are some 20 million children ages 12 to 17 who surf the Web.
When the Girl Scout Research Institute polled girls about their Internet use, 30 percent said they had been sexually harassed online, but only 7 percent said they told their parents.
According to Pew Internet, nearly 60 percent of teenagers say they have received an e-mail or instant message from a stranger, and half of all teen Internet users say they have sent messages to people they never met.
Despite all this, the same study found more than half of the teenagers online say they do not feel any concern about being contacted by people they do not know.
Related Stories
* Controversial Web Site Claims to 'Out' Would-Be Child Molesters
Top Stories
* Microsoft Formally Launches Search Engine
* Sun Microsystems Unveils Grid Computing
* HP Propose Alternative to Transistors
The game, Dickerson said, should help to change those youngsters' nonchalant attitude.
"It's a new approach to a very old problem," he said. "The Internet didn't invent pedophiles, but they use it."
'Kids Need to Be Scared'
Monique Nelson, a spokeswoman for Web Wise Kids, said the game helps to overcome some of the illusions that the Internet allows predators to perpetrate, illusions that were harder to even create when they needed to approach their potential victims in person.
"Kids need to be scared," Nelson said. "They take the Internet, chat rooms and e-mail too lightly. The 'stranger-danger' thing doesn't work with the Internet. As soon as a kid makes a friend in a chat room, that person is no longer a stranger to them."
Dickerson said that in his experience with children at the Camas school this fall, the game succeeds where parents, teachers, police or other adults lecturing fails.
"With kids at the sixth-grade level, when you talk to them about something like that, it's, 'Predator blah blah blah, Internet blah blah blah,'" he said. "We sat them down at the game and it took about six hours and I would say there was about 90 percent total involvement."
Playing Cop
In the game, children play the role of police investigators, trying to capture a predator who has abducted a child before it is too late.
The game starts by showing just how easy it is for predators to pretend to be kids in youth-oriented chat rooms. To begin, kids in the "Missing" game introduce themselves to other chat room user. But when they click on user screen names, one will reveal an adult — and not just an adult, an actual convicted child molester dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit.
Once the predator has identified his target, made contact and then convinced the youngster to meet him in the real world, the chase is on. Children playing the game take the role of police investigators, trying to identify and decipher clues.
When the game is over, the children have to take home a questionnaire to discuss with their parents and together develop an Internet safety plan, including issues such as what to do if a stranger makes contact with them or they are asked to meet somebody in person.
Skirting Controversy
Despite its subject matter, Nelson said the game is "age specific," meaning that while children know that the young victim has fallen into the hands of a "predator," there is no mention of what specifically might be happening.
The all-too-common headlines, though, are there for children to see.
While Teasley's class was working through the program, the body of a girl who had been abducted in Texas was found in a field just 17 miles away from Weatherford.
"It really hit home for them," she said.
Dickerson did not want to leave to chance whether the children using the game would understand what was going on, but he also was aware that the parents in the community might not be pleased to have their children told about sexual predators.
"We wanted to be pretty up-front about what the consequences of getting involved with a pedophile are," he said.
So he had a meeting with a select group of teachers, administrators, community leaders and parents. He gave them the presentation he wanted to give to the students, then had them play the game — and he got their support.
Then he invited all the parents of the children in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades to attend a presentation on the game. He said 40 parents came, and one wanted to be with her child when the game was played, and another did not want her child to play the game in school — but she asked for a copy so they could play it together at home.
"We were all in favor of that," Dickerson said. "The game is very user-friendly."
