CCA Hosts Internet Safety Presentation

The May Forum of the Central Community Alliance featured Aimee C. Cahanin, Computer Forensic Examiner for the Louisiana Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, High Technology Crime Unit.  The emphasis of the presentation was to demonstrate the need to protect our children from child predators using the internet.  She emphasized that the internet is a wonderfully valuable resource when used properly and precautions are taken.
In addition to having some of the most stringent child porn laws in the U.S., Louisiana has one of the most advanced high technology crime units in the nation. Ms Cahanin’s presentation was enhanced by a slide show, video, and a question and answer session from the attendees.  She did an excellent job of packing a lot of information into 90 minutes without being overly technical or boring with excess statistical references.
Topics included Cyberbullying, sexting, traffic in child pornography, data mining, social networking, teen chat rooms and more.
While often disturbing, the information gathered was very enlightening.  Here are just a few highlights:
There are viruses that can remotely activate your web cam without your knowledge.
All data on a hard drive can be corrupted, but never totally erased.  All data can be retrieved.  Hard drives are not only in your computer, but in your cell phone, copier, gps device, digital camera and more.
Digital photos taken include metadata such as time, date and gps location of the photo.
There are 14 million websites dedicated exclusively to child pornography.
Once you have posted something on the internet, you have lost your right to privacy.
For more information on protecting your child against internet child predators or to leave an anonymous tip go to www.cybertipline.com
To teach young children to stay safe on the internet go to www.netsmartz.org
The CCA is dedicated to bringing such programs to our neighbors.  They meet the third Tuesday of each month.   For more information about CCA go to http://www.centralcommunityalliance.org/
Summary provided by Jeanie Barnett