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Briefing highlights dangers, risks facing high school students
Internet safety, bullying and the dangers of smoking marijuana highlighted a list of topics discussed during a briefing at Mountain Home High School on Friday.
Hundreds of students gathered inside Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium to listen to a presentation from Officer David Gomez, a school resource officer with the Meridian Police Department.
Gomez focused heavily on the increasing use of social media outlets by registered sex offenders and other predators that use sites like Facebook and Instagram to select potential victims.
His briefing here was one in a series of similar discussions he has with students attending schools across the Treasure Valley. His briefings reach out to students as young as 10.
During his presentation, he illustrated how easy it gets for predators to target unsuspecting teens. Two months after he became the school resource officer at Mountain View High School, he created a fake account on Facebook pretending he was a high school student.
In a very short amount of time, he had 400 individuals that had "friended" him online, none of whom actually knew him.
It took just 30 seconds to create a fake account, Gomez said. How long does it take for an online predator to do the same, the officer asked the teens seated in the audience.
In 2014, he created a second bogus Facebook account, this time posing as a 13-year-old girl. The photos and content of the messages he posted made it appear obvious that he was a young teenage girl.
But that didn't deter a number of men that wanted to be online "friends," the officer said. Three of them were men ranging in age from their early 20s to mid-50s who sent friend requests to the account Gomez had created.
The officer emphasized that none of these individuals had any connection to any family member, a church group or other direct ties. Simply put, online predators will say whatever it takes to lure teens into being friends, Gomez emphasized.
For example, he received a message from an individual claiming they were serving with the Marine Corps in Afghanistan. The content of the initial messages indicated the he was reaching out to others looking for someone to talk to.
But within 15 minutes of striking up a conversation to the female teen profile Gomez had set up, the individual was already asking if "she" could send him nude photos.
Over time, the man arranged to meet with the "teen" at a park in Meridian. He was met instead by police officers, who determined that he was actually a homeless individual using the computers at the Meridian Public Library to stalk 200 to 300 girls in the local community every day.
He was arrested and charged with a felony count of using the Internet to entice children with separate charges of exchanging nude photos with two other female teens.
This was just one in a number of similar cases, Gomez said. Police in Meridian have arrested a number of cyber-stalkers in recent years. Among them was a 40-year-old man with two prior convictions for raping children.
Most of these predators are in their homes constantly searching for potential victims, Gomez said.
"There are creepers everywhere," he said.
And these predators don't necessarily live in Idaho either, the officer added. He's dealt with cases where police arrested a 25-year-old man from Ohio and a 38-year-old man from Oklahoma, both of whom were targeting young girls living in Idaho.
While online resources have their use, they can also draw predators to people's homes. For example, photos posted to Instagram will tell someone where that image was shot within an accuracy of approximately six feet. They can use that data to determine where someone lives, what school they attend and where they hang out.
The officer highlighted another recent arrest where a cashier at a department store in Boise watched a female teenager purchase a pair of bikinis with her mother. After they left the store, the man wrote down the mother's name and went home later to search for that name online.
Discovering the mother's Facebook account, he was able to access found the teen's online profile as well as her Instagram account, where he found photos of the girl wearing the same bikinis her mother purchased earlier that day.
"It took just 45 seconds to find her," Gomez said.
The man was caught by police as he sat in his parked car near the home of the teen's family. He was using a pair of binoculars to spy on the girl by peering into her bedroom window.
But predators don't necessarily target young teenage girls, the officer said. They are now using online games like Minecraft to lure children as young as six to take nude photos of themselves with promises of receiving rewards for their cooperation.
Turning to other social media concerns, the officer highlighted a significant problem with "sexting" -- using a cell phone camera to take and transmit nude photos.
Sexting is a significant problem in today's high schools, the officer said. He estimates that nearly half of all high school-age girls have sent these sexually explicit images.
The officer warned the high school students that transmitting nude photos of themselves or other underage individuals is a crime. They can face charges of disseminating or possessing child pornography.
Gomez added that once these photos are posted online, they never go away. He recently dealt with a case where a predator tried to extort money from one victim, who had posted nude photos of herself six years prior.
"It can change your life, guys," he said.
Ultimately, it's up to parents to set the rules when their children access online resources.
"Be the parent. Monitor your kids, set the rules and boundaries and know what they are doing," Gomez said.
Gomez then addressed concerns with bullying, which remains an ongoing problem in schools. In recent years, it's gotten significantly worse with the advent of online technology, he said.
Holding up his index finger, he said the easiest way to deal with online bullies is to block these individuals from their account and delete their hateful comments.
The officer urged teens to keep a close eye on who they choose as their online friends and to keep that list as short as possible. He recommended they keep their friend's list down to no more than 200 individuals on all of their social media accounts combined.
"The more friends you have online, the more chances you will get bullied," he said.
Last week's briefing resonated with people like high school assistant principal Tilli Abbott, who has dealt with a number of issues recently involving students and social media.
The officer concluded his briefing by discussing the use of marijuana. With states like Washington and Colorado legalizing it for recreational use, he said that this form of drug use poses inherent risks for teens and young adults.
While it's legal in these states, it's not "free," he emphasized.
This form of drug use begins so innocently but follows a very predictable path, the officer said. A high school student at a party will see a joint passed around and hesitate trying. But they cave in to peer pressure and try it once, thinking that it didn't hurt them.
The following week, they try it again with the same results. But down the road, their friends tell them that it'll cost money to get high the next time.
And that's where the problem begins, Gomez said. They stay up late getting stoned with their friends, which means they end up missing school and work.
When they stop receiving that paycheck from work, they start emptying change drawers looking for money to buy pot. When that runs out, they begin selling their parent's jewelry or other personal property.
Eventually, many of these individuals are arrested breaking into people's cars hoping to find money something valuable they can sell so they can buy more marijuana.
"You go to prison because marijuana is not free and never will be," Gomez said.