Malta students, parents learn internet safety

Technology is great, until it isn’t.

In a day and age when more and more young children have access to the World Wide Web, there is no shortage of degenerates looking to exploit them. Last Wednesday in Malta, Undersheriff Frank Billmayer II of the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office, gave two separate presentations to students at the high school auditorium to discuss with the children how to protect themselves from internet predators. In his third presentation of the night, this one with parents, he gave a disclaimer that his talk might be rated R.

“This conversation dovetails a lot with the first two conversations with the kids because I want parents to be able to go home tonight and be able to have a conversation with their kids,” Undersheriff Billmayer said. “But, of course, the middle school (talk) was a PG, the High School was more of a PG 13 …for the parents, I don’t show any nudity, but I don’t sugarcoat it either. This is real stuff and kids are being victimized and kids are being killed because of the contact they have had with people on the internet.”

Undersheriff Billmayer head’s up the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for Blaine County – one of 13 Montana Law agencies involved with Montana ICAC – and went through a list of applications for computers and phones which internet predators use to target children.

“In the past, when a new App would come out, we would do everything we could to investigate them,” he said. “But these tools, or fundamentals I am going to go over, they apply across the board. It doesn’t matter if it is Kik, Meet Me, Snap Chat, Facebook, MySpace, it is all the same.”

Malta High School Principal Scott King said that the presentations to the two different levels of students kept all of the student’s attention and after the presentations, he and Malta Middle School Principal Shawn Bleth talked about the day. Aside from online predators, King said that he and Bleth both see cyber-bullying as an area of concern in the local schools.

“Many of the things that are going to be discussed tonight, we are dealing with off our desks,” Principal King said. “Especially the bullying that happens through texting or Snap Chat or Facebook …it’s not like it is something that is away from here, it’s happening here in Phillips County.”

Undersheriff Billmayer laid-out a laundry list of ways to help protect children from cyber-bullying and internet predators which included looking at their social media, keeping in mind that children can gain access to the internet in a myriad of ways – including Xbox and Play Station – and simply talking with kids about their online activities.

“The best way to prevent kids from becoming victims through internet crimes is to be a parent,” he said. “Ask them what is going on. Show an interest in what they are doing. Do your due diligence and look into what they are doing online.”

For more information on internet crimes, Undersheriff Billmayer asked that parents visit the Montana ICAC at http://www.MTICAC.org, as well as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at http://www.netsmartz.org. He also encourages parents to contact him directly for help or advice at either 406-357-3260 or via Email at [email protected].