YORK – York Middle School students had an important lesson on Friday morning.
At the morning assembly, Nebraska State Patrol Sgt. Jeromy McCoy spoke to the kids about Internet safety and cyberbullying.
McCoy told the kids that there are online predators who will pretend to be someone they’re not in order to get in contact with kids.
“Predators are people who want to do bad things to you or want to get you to do something bad for them,” McCoy said.
Students should beware people online who ask for personal information, talk about inappropriate things or who say they want to meet up with them.
“It’s definitely a warning sign if someone you’ve never met before wants to meet you,” he said. “You should talk to someone, an adult you can trust.”
McCoy said that just recently, he dealt with three 14-year-old girls who were talking to people online and sent pictures of themselves to them. One of the guys was lying about his age and instead of being the 14-year-old boy he told the girl he was, he was a 24-year-old sex offender.
“Unless you know who the person is in real life, I wouldn’t recommend chatting with them or adding them on Facebook because you don’t know who they really are,” McCoy said.
“Anyone worth having as a friend wouldn’t ask you to put yourself at risk.”
Things you put on the Internet have lasting consequences in that it’s out there forever.
McCoy talked about how parents, teachers, colleges, future employers and relatives can get online and see what you post and information and pictures you put up.
“If it’s on the Internet, it’s not private,” McCoy said.
McCoy talked about how there was a bank robbery in Clay Center and the state patrol knew what one of the robbery suspects was wearing during the robbery.
“We went to his Facebook page and in his profile picture, he was wearing the same coat he had on when he committed the robbery,” McCoy said.
McCoy also spoke to the kids about cyberbullying, or bullying someone with technology.
He said that 42 percent of middle schoolers have been bullied in the last 30 days and 90 percent of middle schoolers had been cyberbullied at one time or another.
Cyberbullying is different from bullying in person. With cyberbullying, the bully and the victim have contact all the time, there’s a perception of anonymity, the impact of the bullying is greater because more people can see it or read it and there’s evidence of the bullying to show what is happening.
McCoy showed a video about a boy who killed himself after being constantly bullied and made fun of online.
“That’s how far this goes sometimes,” McCoy said.
“They don’t feel they have an out. You need to be aware of what you say online and how it can affect other people.”
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