Google takes Internet safety program to Montana

Tuesday's student assembly at Loy Elementary School was choreographed for fun, but the message it delivered was serious stuff.

The Internet and mobile communications are wonderful tools, but children need to protect themselves against the risks posed by Internet predators, scam artists and bullies.

Representatives from Google led a 45-minute program in the Loy gymnasium titled the "The Online Safety Roadshow." Developed in cooperation with the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the online child safety organization "iKeepSafe," the presentation's goal is to teach students how to be smart about the content they share online, focusing on important skills like how to create a safe password, adjust online privacy settings and avoid Internet scams.

Launched in 2013, the Online Safety Roadshow was making its first visit to Montana. The presentation was filled with interactive games and quizzes intended to drive home the online safety message. For example, one of Google's 20-something presenters shared a cellphone image taken of her with french fries up her nose.

The kids ate up the silly, self-deprecating humor, but the exercise took a more serious tone when the kids were asked to check the underside of their chairs. There most found a copy of the "french fries up the nose" photo, representing just how quickly an embarrassing image can be spread across the Web.

"Anything you post or send to your phone can be copied or snapshotted," a Google rep told the kids. "This means that if you have a personal photo you've sent to a friend, you don't always know where it might end up."

The importance of online safety was emphasized by the presence of Montana Attorney General Tim Fox at the Loy School presentation. Fox was affected by an online scam in 2014, when a scammer lifted one of Fox's campaign photos from Facebook and used it to create a fake profile on an Internet dating website. The scam was exposed in August, but not before the scammer had already used Fox's likeness to swindle an Indiana woman out of nearly $150,000.

"There are many, many different types of crimes; there are many different types of scams," Fox told the Tribune following the presentation. "But as a general proposition, it is the people who are most vulnerable who are susceptible to them — the elderly, disadvantaged, disabled and kids. Kids are one set of victims where we can have the biggest impact."

Fox said a bill is currently before the Montana Legislature to stiffen Montana's human trafficking laws, but stopping the entire spectrum of Internet crime is a daunting prospect.

"Law enforcement can use technology to monitor what's going on over the Internet, but the criminals do that as well," Fox said. "They're very sophisticated and they're unrelenting. They're often times anonymous and they're very mobile. A big part of preventing Internet crime is education and public awareness."

According to Google spokeswoman Hallie Seltzer, the Online Safety Roadshow was developed with middle-school age students in mind.

"That's really the target age when kids are really starting to go online — checking emails, starting Facebook accounts," Seltzer said. "That's all 13-plus, so we wanted to get them right at the beginning stages of their Internet use to teach them how to be safe online."

The program may have been targeted at a 13- to 14-year-old audience, but the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders at Loy seemed equally thrilled with bits of gross-out trivia, like how 75 percent of Americans admit to using their mobile Internet device to communicate while they're in the bathroom and one in five Americans have dropped their phone in the toilet.

In between the comic relief, presenters re-enforced simple tips for kids to improve their online safety:

•Think before you share information online.

•Protect your personal information by developing strong passwords.

•Know how to use and adjust online privacy settings.

•Never click on suspicious email messages and take action to report online bullying.

Fox placed special emphasis on the dangers posed by child predators. His comments on the topic were reserved for after the school assembly.

"These are sensitive issues," Fox said. "You don't talk about sexual predators and some of those things to sixth-graders. The predators, both pedophiles and human traffickers, use the social network to find people who are susceptible. When kids post how they're feeling blue or down or have no friends and all that kind of stuff, they will befriend them. It's typically girls but sometimes boys, ages 13 and 14 on average. Law-enforcement, parents, teachers and community members all need to be part of the solution."

More tips on how to keep families safe from Internet predators and online crime are available on Google's Internet safety center, google.com/safetycenter.