Source: Information
Edition: Spring, 2005
PDF Version: Download
Cst. Yvon Brault was shocked just over a year ago when he came across a local website with revealing photographs of teenagers, and found a written profile on his own teenage daughter.
Unlike some of her friends, she hadn’t posted explicit photographs of herself. But the personal information she included was enough to make her a potential target for sexual predators, who often use the Internet to hunt for new victims.
“I couldn’t believe it,” remembers Brault, shaking his head. “In my job, I often work with youth promoting safety, but my first priority as a father is my daughter’s safety, so I immediately explained to her how dangerous this was. She took down her info right away.”
Brault, “A” Division’s Public Relations Officer, didn’t stop there. He began researching the dangers Internet posed to youth, particularly teenagers, and he found some troubling answers.
According to Statistics Canada, the average teenager spends more time on the Internet than in front of the television. Among high school students, 72% admitted participating in unsupervised chatrooms. Even more worrying, 43% of teenagers aged 15 to 17 said they had been invited to meet someone they had only come in contact with online, and one out of five accepted the invitation.
A perfect example of the dangers the Internet poses to youth was right in Brault’s own backyard – the local website that profiled teenagers. “Some of these profiles had been viewed more than 20,000 times in the last three months alone. The teens thought it was a joke, but they had no idea who was on the other end, learning everything about them.”
Brault decided local youth needed to know how dangerous this behaviour was, so he enlisted the help of the Gatineau Police Service, the MRC des Collines police, and the local Sûreté du Québec office. In April 2004, Internet 101 was born.
Brault wanted to find a common ground to entice and educate naturally curious youth without lecturing them. He approached Famous Players, who donated the use of two theatres in their Gatineau Starcité complex for the first Internet 101 workshops in November 2004. Separate presentations were developed for youth and their parents, to make them aware of the dangers lurking on the Internet.
“I made sure to get speakers from the community that teens would want to listen to, not some old guy in a uniform,” jokes Brault. He and his police partners recruited Martin Grenier of Radio Énergie 104,1 FM and multi-media personality Yannick Therrien of Yannick.net as presenters.
Between the police organizations and local businesses, the committee collected more than $5,000 in goods, including gift certificates and season ski passes, which they gave away at the event. Brault also found support from within the RCMP, including “A” Division Tech Crime and the Mounted Police Foundation.
Meanwhile, Brault wanted to build a family-friendly website to share knowledge of safe Internet use. He teamed up with deal.org because of their experience in reaching out to youth, to build www.internet101.ca.
“Police in other cities can navigate to the site and use the same strategies we used to spread Internet safety awareness to youth,” explains Brault. “I also wanted to provide a resource on the Web for youth and parents who wanted to find more information on safe Internet use.”
“We had more than 400 youth and their parents show up for the workshops, and more than 40 volunteers from police organi-zations and the community,” explains Brault, who has worked often with teenagers during his 19 years with the Force.
One of the volunteers, Sgt. Robert Bisson of “A” Division Tech Crime, also helped create the workshop scenario, which told the real-life story of a teenaged girl who thought she had met a boy her own age in a chat room and ended up being held captive by a 42-year-old sexual predator.
“The parents especially, were shocked by the story and the images on the local website,” remembers Bisson. “A lot of them just didn’t realize how dangerous the Internet can be for children. It really made the parents and the kids stop and think – that made it worthwhile for me.”
Sgt. Yves Grimard, head of the Communications and Community Relations Unit for the Sûreté du Québec’s Outaouais office, also got to experience the audience reaction first-hand.
“The parents and community partners saw that federal, provincial and local police forces are working together to protect youth from the dangers on the Internet,”says Grimard, who talked to parents and youth during the presentation. “I think we gave parents more confidence about how to navigate the Internet with their children. Many of the youth realized they should always be cautious when using the Internet.”
Internet 101 was a resounding success, and the proof, in this case, was on the Internet. In the weeks following the presentation, most of the teenage profiles were with-drawn from the local website that Internet 101 had targeted as dangerous.
With his recipe for success, Brault was determined to repeat the presentation in Ottawa. In early 2005, he formed a joint police committee with the Ottawa Police Service, the Military Police and the Ontario Provincial Police. Famous Players agreed to donate use of the Ottawa Silvercity complex in May 2005, and Brault once more started drumming up support both from within the RCMP and from business and community groups.
“Initially, more than a year ago, I thought it would be one small presentation,” says Brault with a wry smile. “But Internet 101, and promoting Internet safety for youth, has grown so much bigger, and I think the Force is an important part of that. We can connect people from every part of the community and government, and after all, our members are parents too. We just want to see our children safe.”
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