Hello dear Readers,
How has your week been? Mine has been good. It's been rather fun to not have so much going on. I actually got somethings done that have been waiting for months! Our weather has been a bit strange, but that's nothing unusual here in Missouri. It was warm and humid at the beginning of the week and we had the AC on. Yesterday it only reached a high of 64º and today it's supposed to be in the low 50s. We're supposed to get a frost in the next few days! Maybe then the leaves will start turning. Right now they are still green. I'm ready for fall colors, long sleeves, sweaters, hot drinks, soups, . . . You get the picture.
The other evening I actually worked on writing one of my novels! Since I have all my monthly short stories written, and I was caught up on the HP reports, I got to return to Hymns in the Hills. It was rather fun. But now I have one final short HP report from last night. Last night was our "graduation" dinner. It was quite nice and–well, I'll tell you about it later.
I had to break this report up into 3 parts. It was long! This first part is the first class. And boy, was it something more people need to know about. Feel free to send others to read it. Or tell them about it. The next instructor for that evening will have two parts since it was really long. I hope you enjoy this and learn something! It's kind of scary.
Highway Patrol
Week 4 – Part 1
September 27, 2018
Arriving at the classroom, we found some of our classmates already there, but most of the rest showed up soon afterwards. One gentleman had a meeting, so he would be late, and another girl thought that class started at 6:30 for some reason.
Sgt. Lueckenhoff apologized that the crash team wasn’t able to make it and then introduced us to Lieutenant Brad Bearden.
Lieutenant Bearden has worked in the Internet Crimes unit for many years. He told us that Joplin has the most successful internet crimes teams in the state. They were also the first to really get a unit together to focus on this aspect of crime. Now the Highway Patrol has some Digital Forensic investigators stationed in Jefferson City. Most of what they deal with is child pornography and related crimes.
If someone is charged as a child predator, they get charged in the federal court, and they can’t get out on bond.
It is safe to say that 99% of child predators are male. In Lt. Bearden’s 8 years of working in this division, there were only two females who were charged and only one since he left the unit.
Most people don’t become a child predator overnight. It’s a cycle. It starts with child pornography, then gets more involved as pictures no longer satisfy.
When Lieutenant Bearden goes to schools, he starts educating the students about what constitutes child pornography because most don’t know. Child pornography is not just pictures of kids without clothes. It includes any person under the age of 18 in the act of any sexual activity. It may be meant as a goofy picture in the school hallway, but it’s serious. “If you have any pictures like that on your phone, your iPad, tablet, or computer, you can be charged with possession of child pornography.” At that point the students usually start pulling out their phones and deleting pictures. Sometimes the teacher or principal asks Lt. Bearden then if he isn’t going to take their phones. “No, this is education. This is not enforcement right now.”
Right now, in the state of Missouri, a 17-year-old can be charged as an adult.
If two 15-year-olds take pictures they shouldn’t and send them to each other, each of them could be charged with creating, possessing, and promoting child pornography.
Lt. Bearden said that one thing he stresses to students and teachers is that if someone sends you a wrong picture, don’t just delete it. Tell someone. The authorities need to know about it as soon as possible so they can stop as many pictures as they can. And whatever you do, never share it on Facebook! Lt. Bearden always asks the students, “Do you know every single friend on every one of your friends’ accounts?” The answer is obviously no. One of those people might be a predator.
Good rule about online friends: If you don’t know the person, delete them. Or don’t be friends with them to begin with.
Did you know that 28 thousand people are looking at pornography every second? It makes me cringe to think of it. But, did you know that all child pornography goes to the National Center for Missing Children? It does. All your search engines–google, aol, bing–all have filters to check for child pornography. It also checks emails. Any photo with a certain percentage of skin showing gets checked. If it is what it shouldn’t be, the authorities can follow the trail of where it came from, who had it last, and eventually find the source of the picture. Then comes the knock on the door. The government doesn’t look kindly on people exploiting our children!
We are in charge of the internet! And if we are in charge of it, we need to keep it clean!
Lt. Bearden gave us a list of apps to beware of. Most of these are ones that child predators use to chat with children. Some because they don’t have filters, some because, while they will have a record of who talked when and where, they don’t have a record of what was said.
Yik Yak– This is a big one predators use to chat. They’ll “meet” the kids elsewhere and then suggest they chat on this app.
Tinder– It has a red flame on it, and some lady told Lt. Bearden, when he found it on her daughter’s phone, that it was a Red Cross app for giving blood. Hardly!
Ask.fm– Don’t go there.
Kik–
Voxer–
Omegle– One of these last four is a Latvian app. Stay away from it.
Whisper–
Snapchat– I know, you probably never thought this was going to come up, did you? After all, you should be able to share a picture and then it will go away in a certain number of seconds. But does it? Not always. And what if someone takes a screen shot of it?
Yubo (used to be Yellow)–
Hot or Not– This doesn’t even sound like a good app!
Burn Book– What on earth? Yeah, not what it sounds like.
Tango– Just for your information, this is NOT a dance app!
Wishbone–
There are also Jailbreak apps that can override a parent’s security on a child’s phone. And we haven’t even mentioned the hidden apps that usually appear as a calculator. Note: There should only be ONE calculator on a device! If you find another one, you know there’s at least one hidden app. Go to the Android or Apple app store and search for “hidden apps.” If any say “update” or “open” you know it is on that device. Why do kids even need their own phone or electronic device? If you say for school, then please note that all the filters used on school iPads and such, don’t work when the student takes the device home. Yeah, that means anything is available.
Yes, it was a lot to take in and rather sobering.
We took a break after that and got snacks and visited for a bit.
Arriving at the classroom, we found some of our classmates already there, but most of the rest showed up soon afterwards. One gentleman had a meeting, so he would be late, and another girl thought that class started at 6:30 for some reason.
Sgt. Lueckenhoff apologized that the crash team wasn’t able to make it and then introduced us to Lieutenant Brad Bearden.
Lieutenant Bearden has worked in the Internet Crimes unit for many years. He told us that Joplin has the most successful internet crimes teams in the state. They were also the first to really get a unit together to focus on this aspect of crime. Now the Highway Patrol has some Digital Forensic investigators stationed in Jefferson City. Most of what they deal with is child pornography and related crimes.
If someone is charged as a child predator, they get charged in the federal court, and they can’t get out on bond.
It is safe to say that 99% of child predators are male. In Lt. Bearden’s 8 years of working in this division, there were only two females who were charged and only one since he left the unit.
Most people don’t become a child predator overnight. It’s a cycle. It starts with child pornography, then gets more involved as pictures no longer satisfy.
When Lieutenant Bearden goes to schools, he starts educating the students about what constitutes child pornography because most don’t know. Child pornography is not just pictures of kids without clothes. It includes any person under the age of 18 in the act of any sexual activity. It may be meant as a goofy picture in the school hallway, but it’s serious. “If you have any pictures like that on your phone, your iPad, tablet, or computer, you can be charged with possession of child pornography.” At that point the students usually start pulling out their phones and deleting pictures. Sometimes the teacher or principal asks Lt. Bearden then if he isn’t going to take their phones. “No, this is education. This is not enforcement right now.”
Right now, in the state of Missouri, a 17-year-old can be charged as an adult.
If two 15-year-olds take pictures they shouldn’t and send them to each other, each of them could be charged with creating, possessing, and promoting child pornography.
Lt. Bearden said that one thing he stresses to students and teachers is that if someone sends you a wrong picture, don’t just delete it. Tell someone. The authorities need to know about it as soon as possible so they can stop as many pictures as they can. And whatever you do, never share it on Facebook! Lt. Bearden always asks the students, “Do you know every single friend on every one of your friends’ accounts?” The answer is obviously no. One of those people might be a predator.
Good rule about online friends: If you don’t know the person, delete them. Or don’t be friends with them to begin with.
Did you know that 28 thousand people are looking at pornography every second? It makes me cringe to think of it. But, did you know that all child pornography goes to the National Center for Missing Children? It does. All your search engines–google, aol, bing–all have filters to check for child pornography. It also checks emails. Any photo with a certain percentage of skin showing gets checked. If it is what it shouldn’t be, the authorities can follow the trail of where it came from, who had it last, and eventually find the source of the picture. Then comes the knock on the door. The government doesn’t look kindly on people exploiting our children!
We are in charge of the internet! And if we are in charge of it, we need to keep it clean!
Lt. Bearden gave us a list of apps to beware of. Most of these are ones that child predators use to chat with children. Some because they don’t have filters, some because, while they will have a record of who talked when and where, they don’t have a record of what was said.
Yik Yak– This is a big one predators use to chat. They’ll “meet” the kids elsewhere and then suggest they chat on this app.
Tinder– It has a red flame on it, and some lady told Lt. Bearden, when he found it on her daughter’s phone, that it was a Red Cross app for giving blood. Hardly!
Ask.fm– Don’t go there.
Kik–
Voxer–
Omegle– One of these last four is a Latvian app. Stay away from it.
Whisper–
Snapchat– I know, you probably never thought this was going to come up, did you? After all, you should be able to share a picture and then it will go away in a certain number of seconds. But does it? Not always. And what if someone takes a screen shot of it?
Yubo (used to be Yellow)–
Hot or Not– This doesn’t even sound like a good app!
Burn Book– What on earth? Yeah, not what it sounds like.
Tango– Just for your information, this is NOT a dance app!
Wishbone–
There are also Jailbreak apps that can override a parent’s security on a child’s phone. And we haven’t even mentioned the hidden apps that usually appear as a calculator. Note: There should only be ONE calculator on a device! If you find another one, you know there’s at least one hidden app. Go to the Android or Apple app store and search for “hidden apps.” If any say “update” or “open” you know it is on that device. Why do kids even need their own phone or electronic device? If you say for school, then please note that all the filters used on school iPads and such, don’t work when the student takes the device home. Yeah, that means anything is available.
Yes, it was a lot to take in and rather sobering.
We took a break after that and got snacks and visited for a bit.
Have you ever used one of those apps?
Did you learn anything new here?
Are you experiencing fall weather yet?
2 comments:
Thank God, I've never used any of these, nor have I ever taken pictures that would be considered suspect! I'm an adult, but even so, I still live at home and my parents have rules for Internet use. I agree, kiddos don't need electronics! Too risky these days. This was so eye-opening! Thank you for this post! We can never be to careful!
I agree! We can't be too careful. If you know of anyone who might benefit from this post, feel free to share. I want people to think about what they do and what they allow their children to do, online. I didn't even tell some of the stories I heard.
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