Detective Rich Wistocki, a 24 year law enforcement officer with a suburban Chicagoland police department, joined Lon Woodbury today on Parent Choices for Struggling Teens to discuss his new program for parents: DARE2KNOW. The program combines the recent issues of drug abuse and drug testing, computer and cell phone monitoring by parents and what red flags to watch for.
"The newest threat to the safety of our children online is called "Sextortion". With all of our technology, kids are using social media apps such as Kik or PowPoke that enables them to chat, send pictures or videos with people they meet online. Sextortion is when a kid meets someone (they think) is the same age and they become friends. One thing leads to another and the "new" friend asks for a "selfie" (a picture of the other person). The online relationship goes on and soon the new friend is requesting a new picture- "something better- risqué. This picture is then sent and then the "extortion" begins with the request for a full on sexual photo. When that request is denied, the new friend threatens to post the risqué picture on all the social media sites, or to threaten the family with injury if they don't do it. "Using intimidation and threats, the kid is scared to not send the picture and equally scared to tell their parents for fear of having their phones and computers taken away", Rich explained. "We have seen this type of extortion growing since January."
The main thing parents need to do is have a serious sit down conversation with their child early on, when they start asking for cell phones, iPhone and iPad. There needs to be ground rules set in place BEFORE they get these devices and parents have to monitor their kid's cell phones and computers. "Children have no privacy when it comes to these things. You as the parent are responsible for your kids, their physical safety and their online/handheld life. Parents need to say- I am monitoring your stuff, I want your passwords and screen names- period. I want you safe."
Software is available for parents to install that helps monitor their child's activities online that sends the alerts directly to the parents' phone or computer. Once installed a parent can "creep" (look at) their child's accounts/ sites and activities. "It's all about protecting the kids" states Detective Wistocki. And over the last five years, he has met with the security team of Face Book to have open and productive conversations on protecting our kids online. To learn more about the software available and this new program you can go to Detective Wistocki's website for more information.
To listen to the full interview, go to
What Are Your Kids Up To? on
LATalkRadio.
Also available in Podcast 
Lon Woodbury is the owner/founder of Woodbury Reports, Inc. and
www.strugglingteens.com. He has worked with families and struggling teens since 1984 and is the host of Parent Choices for Struggling Teens.
Detective Rich Wistocki, a 24 year law enforcement officer has a passion for teaching parents how to parent their children while online, how to be better parents and how to keep their kids safe while online. Detective Wistocki is also an instructor at the Suburban Law Enforcement Academy teaching detectives and patrol offices how to investigate internet crime. The classes he instructs are- Social Network Investigations, Beginner in Computer Crime Investigations, Internet Predator Investigations, Juvenile Sexting Investigations and Patrol Response to Internet Crime.
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