Callahan Walsh is fighting to keep children safe, and now more than ever, that means protecting them online.
Walsh is Executive Director of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which was founded by his parents 40 years ago after Walsh’s brother, Adam, went missing in Florida. In addition, he co-hosts “America’s Most Wanted” with his father. The iconic show has returned with new episodes, but it is Walsh’s work off camera that keeps him focused on helping parents navigate the often unseen dangers to children across the globe.
NCMEC Internet Safety Callahan Walsh
“Our mission has been to locate missing children and fight exploitation, but of course, prevent future victimization as well,” Walsh said. “And we do believe prevention is key. We have a mountain of data that we sit on as the clearinghouse for missing and exploited children’s issues.”
The NCMEC maintains a CyberTipline, which is a reporting mechanism for internet providers and social media platforms when child sexual abuse material is discovered or reported to them. The public can make reports as well.
“A lot of times it’s these images or videos found on a social media platform – maybe reported by a user, maybe found by the platform itself,” Walsh said. “We’re also seeing online enticement is reported, grooming and luring, sextortion, sex trafficking, all types of reports come into our organization through the CyberTipline. Last year, we received over 36 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation through our CyberTipline. Many of those reports are international, although we’re called the National Center for Missing Exploited Children. Obviously, the internet has created a world where there really are no borders.”
The online world is a reality and parents have to adapt.
“We can’t raise our children the same way our parents raised us,” Walsh said. “The internet is here. It’s here to stay. It’s created life for the better in so many ways, but it has created new ways to exploit our children, and we’ve seen predators move to these online platforms. We saw, even during the pandemic, chatter on the dark web of these perpetrators sharing best practices, tips and tricks on how to groom and lure children from the home, how to avoid detection from law enforcement or the parents. We know that these dangers exist online, but the internet is not going anywhere. It’s a ubiquitous part of our lives.”
Though children get a cell phone at an average age of 10 years in the U.S., Walsh said that often comes years after they have accessed the internet through tablets, siblings’ phones or other devices.
“They’re very tech savvy,” he said. “The computer used to sit in the living room right where it could be monitored, but now we all walk around with these smart devices that are mini computers that have a webcam attached to them or a high definition camera and are connected to the internet, and essentially connected to anyone else in the world that has an internet connection.”
Walsh likens it to handing the car keys over to a child without a permit, training and driver’s education. Internet access requires education and discussion.
“Why would we do that with the internet when there are dangers out there that exist? The internet can be a great place for education and communication. The amount of data that we’re able to send back and forth is an incredible thing, so parents just need to understand these dangers exist and start setting some ground rules,” he said.
Walsh offered tips for parents to consider as they navigate their child’s internet use.
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Set rules right from the start
“Make sure that children understand which websites they should be going to, who they should and shouldn’t be talking to if they are on social media, making sure their profiles are set to private,” he said. “Make sure you’re on their friends list as well. So really, it’s about laying down the basics early on and starting from a really young age.”
Stay tech savvy
“That means oftentimes getting on the same apps that your children are using – the best way to learn how an app works is to download it yourself and poke around and try it out,” Walsh said. “These apps are very intuitive.”
Talk about it – early, often and repeatedly
“Have ongoing conversations with your children about safety and making safe and smart decisions, identifying risky situations and learning how to avoid them, and those conversations need to start early and happen often,” Walsh said. “We can’t just sit our kid down on the couch and drop the bombshell on him, or have this serious conversation out of the blue. Online safety can be a normal part of conversation, even from an early age. And when you’re talking to your kids, especially your young ones, about safe and smart decision making, when you start young, make sure that the conversation is easy for the child to understand, easy for them to remember and not fear-based.
Your child should always feel safe coming to you as a parent if something has happened to them online, if somebody has said something or sent them something that they know is wrong. You should, as a parent, make sure that your child understands that it’s something that they didn’t do wrong, that they can come to you. Having those conversations are really important at an early age, but they need to mature along the way as well, as your child’s getting older. We know sexting and sending nudes is not going away. We see young teens doing it all the time, sending self-produced images to somebody they thought they could trust. We know it’s going to happen, but children really need to understand the dangers of that at a young age and how that can follow them around.”
The NCEMC offers Take It Down, a free service that can help remove or stop the online sharing of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images or videos taken when users of the service were under 18 years old. It is anonymous. For details, visit takeitdown.ncmec.org.
Walsh said maturing the conversation as children get older can help them maintain a safer digital fingerprint. Prevention is always the easiest path.
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Explore NetSmartz and other ways buffer children from harm
The NCMEC’s NetSmartz program is free and includes online safety videos, activity sheets and much more for young children, tweens and teens. It begins with “Into the Cloud,” a video series that starts with children as young as kindergarten.
“It looks like a cartoon any child on a Saturday morning would be watching,” Walsh said. “Through different situations and scenarios, those kids learn how to be safe online. Of course, the resources mature as well. All those resources are free, but in addition to prevention education material, there are some great parental guidance applications and parental controls on different devices – software that many parents use in and around the home. I really urge parents to look at the parental controls that are on their children’s devices and make sure you know how they work and to implement them correctly as well.”
Find support, help and education
Visit the NCMEC at missingkids.org for free resources including NetSmartz, the CyberTipline and much more.
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This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Internet safety – Tips for parents from Callahan Walsh and NCMEC