By Edward Mason and Jill Harmacinski
Staff writers
February 13, 2008 06:30 am BOSTON — You can lock the doors and windows, hold their hand at the mall and buy training wheels for bicycles. But a major danger facing kids today is right above the keyboard. "The Internet is one of the biggest risks we have for kids safety right now," said Lawrence Lt. Sean Burke, who is president of a national school safety group. And, a North of Boston lawmaker wants to make sure the time kids spend on school computers is safer. Rep. Bradley H. Jones Jr., R-North Reading, is pushing legislation to require every school district to have a policy for making the Internet safe for minors and make the policy known to parents and legal guardians. "It's important that any parent be able to know what (the school system's) policy is, and even if there is no policy in particular," Jones said. Jones, a parent of two young children, said children's Internet safety is an important issue to him. "It's on my radar because, as a parent and as a representative, I'm concerned about what's going on (on the Internet) and the access children have," he said. Christopher Farmer, Gloucester school superintendent, said his city also has rules for student Internet access, but questions whether the state should take a greater role. "My general feeling is there's a temptation for the state to micro-manage school districts," said Farmer, who worries about new regulations and costly mandates following what he calls a "common sense" policy. Jones said the bill leaves it up to cities and towns what limits they put on Internet access. "Obviously, we don't want to been seen making that determination," Jones said. "For the state to say 'one-size-fits-all' doesn't make sense. There may be different standards in different communities." Burke stressed that "any person in the world" can get to a child through a computer, including pedophiles. In Lawrence, some firewalls exist that bar students from accessing certain Web sites from school computers. But Burke, who leads the police department's school resource division, is unaware of a district-wide policy in Lawrence on student Internet use. Jones' proposed law "is a great idea," Burke said last night. Jones filed the measure late last year, before 49 state attorneys general and the operators of the MySpace.com Web site reached a pact on Jan. 14 to protect children from child predators and inappropriate material. MySpace came to law enforcement officials' attention after minors were lured by child predators, who posed as teenagers on the site, and lured them to in-person meetings. The company pledged to take steps to prevent known child predators from creating MySpace profiles and to create an email registry parents could use to keep their children off the site, among other steps. Still, the Internet can be a dangerous place for children. Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said he supports Jones' measure, saying schools need to take steps to protect children because they are easy prey to adult predators. Internet predators, Blodgett said, work over time to gain children's trust, asking where the child hangs out, whether their parents are at home, if they could send a picture. "They groom their victims," Blodgett said. Blodgett said that Jones' bill would complement a 2002 state anti-luring law, which made it a crime to use the Internet to entice a child under 16 years old for sexual purposes. In 2007, 10 people were arrested in Essex County on charges of luring minors over the Internet. Some area schools already take steps to protect students. In Andover, parents and children have to complete and sign a permission form for Internet use, said Raymond Tode, director of information systems and educational technology. That form, which spells out 32 rules for and limits on Internet use in school, has to be signed again as students go from elementary school, to middle school and high school. Toee said Andover also blocks students from accessing sites run by hate groups, where gambling occurs and where substance abuse is discussed. The school department can also block sites teachers believe inappropriate, and has a filter that blocks sites where a certain amount of skin is shown. Tode said he supports state legislation. "All schools should do it, some don't," Tode said. Having a policy in place protects children and the town, he said. "In this litigation society, I think it's only prudent so we protect kids, the most important part, and protect the citizens of Andover from lawsuits," Tode said. "We can tell people where their children have gone and show what we're doing is reasonable and prudent." Sen. Stephen Baddour, D-Methuen, said he hopes many school districts already have Internet safety policies. The father of two daughters, 5 and 6, Baddour said his kids use the computer frequently to play educational games. "I'd be supportive of this, but I'd rather see cities and towns doing this on their own," he said. "It's unfortunate it takes legislation to get cities and towns to do this."
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