CYBER PREDATORS 

   

Over the last several years, the Internet has become more popular than ever.  Although the Internet is very accessible to log on and enter different sites and chat rooms, the Internet can be a dangerous place, especially for children.  Millions of children have gone online and have had unsolicited inappropriate encounters with strangers.  Some of these “meetings” have led to abusive or even deadly encounters.  There are many pedophiles online as well as many scammers who may try to get your personal information.   It is important to know what dangers are lurking on the Internet.  And it is important for parents to know what sites their children are going on and who they are speaking to.

 

Next month, my office is co-sponsoring a conference with Brooklyn College on sexual predators and what every parent needs to know to protect their family.  The event will take place on March 12 from 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM at Brooklyn College’s Levenson Recital Hall.  Topics to be discussed will include: the Sex Offender Registration Act

(Megan’s Law), Internet Predators, Forensic Evidence Collection & DNA Databanks and Safety Concerns.

 

The District Attorney’s Office’s Cyber Crimes Unit, created in May 2005, recently implemented a pilot program to do more presentations on Internet safety.  My Office has trained a team of prosecutors to go into the community to educate children and parents about predators on the Internet.  There are now 12 trained Assistant District Attorneys who will go to different locations around Brooklyn to talk to parents as well as community leaders, discussing topics including online risks such as cyber-bullying, how children are victimized, the dangers of file sharing, social networking sites, software filtering and monitoring programs, the various resources that are available, and tips on what to do if “something bad happens.”  The Assistant District Attorneys are visiting schools, churches and community groups in Brooklyn who are interested in getting more information on Internet safety.  Each month, the ADA’s will visit public, private and parochial schools throughout the borough.  Following the school visits, there will be a district-wide parents’ workshop.  This workshop is co-sponsored by the District Attorney’s Office, the Community Education Council (CEC), the District Family Advocates Office and the local Parent Associations.  The program was put together by Kevin O’Donnell, Chief of the DA’s Cyber Crimes Unit.

 

One of the instructions that prosecutors give to parents during these seminars is to compare communicating on the Internet to safety on the street, pointing out that children are taught not to talk to strangers on the street, so they should not talk to strangers on the Internet either.

 

Other tips that are given for children include:

 

  • Don’t give out personal information such as your name, address, age, telephone number or a sibling’s personal information. 
  • Don’t post your pictures on the Internet.
  • Don’t download anything from unknown sources.
  • Don’t arrange to meet someone in person that you first met on the Internet.

 

In addition, parents should learn:

 

  • How to use child protection safeguards that your Internet service provider offers.
  • How to put child protection software on your computer.
  • How to check the history of sites that your child visits.

     

KEVIN O’DONNELL

 

Kevin O’Donnell is Chief of the District Attorney’s Cyber Crimes Unit.  Mr. O’Donnell, who has a Bachelors Degree from Cornell University and a Law Degree from St. John’s University, got his first experience with the District Attorney’s Office when he worked as a paralegal before entering law school and during his first year of law school.  After graduating from law school, he was hired as a prosecutor in October 1997.  He was assigned to the Sex Crimes Bureau in March 2000 after getting experience in several other bureaus. In 2004, Mr. O’Donnell briefly left for approximately 9 months and worked for a civil litigation firm before returning to the Sex Crimes Bureau.

 

Mr. O’Donnell was assigned to the Cyber Crimes Unit, which is a division within the Sex Crimes Bureau, when the Unit was created in the Spring of 2005.  He prosecuted many cases in this department and was eventually promoted to Chief of the Unit.  He continues to prosecute many traditional sex crimes cases.  In the Cyber Crimes Unit, he handled Internet-based crimes of a sexual nature which involves undercover.

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