Internet Safety Presentation to Parents

Do you know what your children are up to when they are online?

Do you have any concerns with cyber bullying, chatrooms, Messenger, social networking sites and online gaming?

Have you ever considered the methods and techniques used by internet predators?

Are there any signs that your child might be at risk on the internet?

What protective and preventative measures can you as parents can put in place?

These vital questions and more were discussed during a day of powerful presentations on internet safety and cyber bullying held at Saint Stephen’s College on Tuesday 20 April 2010. As parents entering into the ‘cyber’ world of our children, we need all the support and advice we can obtain. Being proactive and knowledgeable of these matters may go a long way in protecting your children/our students from exposure to unsafe experiences.

Saint Stephen’s College commissioned Mr Brett Lee who is an Internet Safety expert to visit our College to share his knowledge and experiences with students, staff and parents. This included an evening session especially for parents.  This was a very successful session and all parents that were able to make the time to attend, received information to help them understand the ‘cyber’ world our children currently live in.  Including the real online dangers and received the knowledge and solutions to keep their children safe. The College is passionate in its quest to provide knowledge in this area and is absorbed all costs involved in the day’s presentations.

Some of the items covered during the presentations:

• Basic operation and capabilities of these programmes
• Who you may be sharing your information with
• Dangers that may be associated with improper use
• How to treat online contacts—As strangers or friends
• Dangers faced in cyberspace can be as real as those in everyday life
• Protecting information and photographs
• What to do if something is of concern to you on the internet
• How to keep you, your family and the information on your computer safe
• The internet is a great tool if used properly and responsibly
• We use real life crime cases are used to highlight the dangers and reinforce our message.

Topics Covered

• Internet & Mobile Phones
• Cyberbullying
• MSN Messenger
• Chatrooms
• Social Networking Sites
• Online Gaming
• Virtual Reality
• Peer to Peer
• Identity Protection

Mr Brett Lee is the founder of iNESS (Internet Education and Safety Services http://www.iness.com.au), who has worked as a Queensland police officer for 22 years, 16 of those as a detective predominantly in the field of child exploitation. In his last five years of service, he was a specialist in the field of undercover internet child exploitation investigations.

Brett has been personally involved in the online investigation, arrest and prosecution of numerous offenders, whose medium for preying on children is the internet. Brett has delivered training to members of law enforcement agencies including New South Wales Police, South Australian Police, West Australian Police and Australian Customs. Within his own police service he was involved in the training of plain clothes police through Detective Training and Sexual Crimes courses in Online Child Exploitation investigations.

Further to Brett's experience, he has completed the FBI Advanced Internet Investigations Course and has worked with the FBI Innocent Images Unit, Maryland USA, the Department of Homeland Security Cyber Crimes Centre, Virginia USA and the San Jose Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, California USA. He has also attended and spoken at conferences around Australia and the world.

Brett has received the Queensland Police Commissioner's Gold Award and the Crime and Misconduct Commissioner's Award for his role in the development and implementation of software that is now utilised by various Australian Law enforcement agencies to track and identify online child offenders.

In 2001, in his role as a Detective, Brett delivered an internet safety presentation to students. It was then that he realised the key to protecting the most vulnerable people in our society, our children, from online dangers was education. This realisation fuelled a passion that led to the creation of INESS which in 2009 reached over 100,000 students, teachers and parents with a message of awareness and responsibilities. As a furtherence to Brett's diverse background he was contracted in Iraq on a US/Iraq project as a Police Instructor training Iraqi nationals at the Iraq National Police Academy. Located outside the township of An Numinayah, Brett often incorpoates stories of his experience there into his presentations.