Dangers of Tech highlighted at Seneca Valley presentation
JACKSON TWP — Dozens of concerned parents crowded the auditorium at Seneca Valley Senior High School on Thursday night, April 27, all with the same thing on their minds — “How do I protect my child from the dangers of the digital world?”
That was the subject of Thursday’s Dangers of Tech presentation, conducted by the Pittsburgh branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“We’re having concerns about how prevalent the cellphone use is, and the dangers that we’re hearing and seeing about social media,” said Tracy Vitale, district superintendent. “So we felt that this was one way to educate the community.”
The presentation fell days after Seneca Valley officially joined five other Western Pennsylvania school districts in a lawsuit against multiple social media giants, alleging harm to children’s mental health.
“We are concerned about the amount of data social media is collecting on our children,” Vitale said. “We are concerned about the algorithms that have been built in the background to determine what ads to feed you.”
Flanking Vitale were four agents from Pittsburgh’s branch of the FBI, all of whom are involved in the prevention of the exploitation of children.
“I hope tonight terrifies you,” said one FBI agent to the parents in attendance.
Attendees learned anytime somebody so much as clicks a button on the internet, they add to their digital footprint. Social media giants and advertisers now use that digital footprint to serve targeted advertising, and impressionable children are the most vulnerable, agents said.
This includes not just data that is willingly provided — such as name, date of birth, or favorite sports or bands — but “passive data” such as cookies and the IP address, which can narrow down a person’s location.
This can lead users down a dangerous path. According to the FBI, there have been 3,000 internet crimes reported against Pennsylvania children this past year — and these only consist of crimes reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
Furthermore, social media has normalized the idea of having deep conversations or relationships with total strangers who have never met in person, agents said. Nationwide, 40% of children in grades four to eight reported talking to a stranger online at one point, while 30% reported taking things one step further and texting a stranger, the FBI agents said.
“I think this is kinda low,” said one of the FBI agents, who theorized that some children may have been too embarrassed to report their own experiences conversing with strangers online.
Furthermore, what a person unwittingly posts on social media during their childhood can come back to haunt them years later, even if that person has changed their views during that time, the audience was told. Even if the incriminating post is “deleted,” it can be spread far and wide or dug up through other means if it gains enough traction.
Some parents attending suggested shielding their children entirely from the dangers of the internet by preventing them from using social media, or taking matters one step further by preventing them from getting their hands on a smartphone at all.
However, as Vitale stressed at the end of the presentation, there is no one-stop solution that can easily help parents prevent their children from being victimized online.
“This is a complex societal problem,” Vitale said. “Complex problems require complex solutions. So it sounds easy … just take the phones, right? But it’s much more complicated than that.”
“Social media, like they said, can be a blessing, but there are always consequences,” said Lisa Smith, a parent who attended the presentation. “And when you have young children who are not mature and do not understand some of those adult consequences, you have to be the parent and be the voice for that child.”
