By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Lawrence Intermediate School sixth-grader Rithvik Nair said he knew about the “public” part of going online, but he did not know that whatever he said or wrote online would be “permanent.”
Rithvik said he does not have a MySpace or Facebook account, because he relies on e-mail or calls to his friends. His parents have spoken to him about the concept of public and permanent in relation to the Internet.
”Now, I’m pretty sure it’s always going to be permanent. The main thing is, if you put something online, that thing could change your life. One word could flip your life upside down,” Rithvik said.
That was the lesson Rithvik and his classmates learned Tuesday morning at a presentation on digital safety by Richard Guerry, executive director of the Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication.
LIS Principal Jon Dauber told the students that technology affects them in every way. The goal of Mr. Guerry’s program is to give them the tools to be “digitally responsible,” he said.
”It’s better to make an informed choice than a blind choice,” Mr. Guerry said. “Nobody should run out of this room and be afraid to use technology. We all drive cars and we know how scary a car crash is. If you abuse digital technology, the consequences are far worse than any car crash or fire.”
Mr. Guerry told the students that if they yell at someone on a sports team on the athletic field or boo the other team, their words go into the air and the target of their comments likely won’t be able to hear them.
But in the digital world, writing those words and sending them to someone could have consequences, he said. It may have been done on the spur of the moment, but mean words that are written and sent online cannot be taken back. The message also can be sent on to someone else, he said.
”You are writing to everyone that person is friends with. People forget when they are being mean to someone, that person might have a friend or a crazy uncle. You never want to have that crazy uncle knocking on your door and saying, ‘I don’t like what you wrote,’” Mr. Guerry said.
It’s also important not to give online status updates where you are going to be at a certain time or what you are doing to be doing, he said. That kind of information invites people with bad intentions to take advantage, he said.
”It gives people a crystal ball into your future,” he said. “The same people who lock the door and turn on the burglar alarm will tell people online that ‘I’ll be in Acapulco tomorrow.’ The same people who are concerned about telling a stranger in the park where they live, will go on the web (and spill personal information.)”
Mr. Guerry told the students about a couple of burglars who broke into houses when they knew the owners would be away. The burglars read the victims’ online announcements that they would be away, which virtually gave the burglars “the keys to the castle,” he said.
Students also should not be fooled into thinking that privacy settings and passwords protect access to their online accounts, he said. The executives at Sun and other computer companies have acknowledged that privacy does not exist, he added.
At Facebook, employees on the quality control team are looking to weed out postings that are illegal or inappropriate, he said. They have access to the account-holder’s postings, he said, adding that “passwords don’t mean anything.”
And even in an account-holder closes that account and moves on to another social-networking site, the information posted on the old site is still available, he said. There are other web sites that provide access to those old accounts, so everything that has been written can be accessed, he said.
And not only that, Mr. Guerry said, but the “tweets” they may have sent on their Twitter accounts to their friends and followers are being stored in the Library of Congress forever. “Isn’t that cool,” he said.
Mr. Guerry also cautioned the students to be aware of whatever they might do in front of a webcam on their laptop computers. There are ways for criminals to obtain images from webcams, and they may post them online. They may try to extort the victim, and if the victim does not comply, then those images will be posted online forever, he said.
But this information does not apply only to laptops and computers at home, Mr. Guerry said. It also applies to cell phones. There is information on their cell phones that could be used inappropriately if the cell phone is lost and people do lose them, he said.
Digital equipment is designed to gather information and to communicate with others, he said. But it can also be a tool of self-destruction if the user is not careful, and the more that it is abused, “the more it can burn you,” he said.
”With all the information I have given you, I promise this will keep you out of trouble. Picture the person who means the most to you looking over your shoulder (when you are posting something online), and if you want that person to see it, then you can do it,” he said.
”Remember the 21st century golden rule maintain that mindset that every time you turn on digital equipment, it’s public and permanent. That’s one way to put a force field between you and everyone else,” Mr. Guerry said.

