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MONTROSE, N.Y. Blue Mountain Middle School will host an internet awareness presentation Thursday by a retired NYPD detective. Detective Tom Grimes will discuss social networking, internet predators, cyber bullying and identity theft at the 7 p.m. meeting.
We call it Internet awareness, said Grimes, about his company New York's Finest Speakers. I equate the Internet to the ocean or the beach in the summertime. There are all these fun times you can have at the beach but theres always a shark in the water with you.
Grimes worked with the NYPDs Organized Crime Control Bureau for about 15 years. Toward the end of his tenure he began tracking drug traffickers on social networking sites.
The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program, part of the Department of Justices juvenile and delinquency branch has a budget that has nearly tripled over the past eight fiscal years, from $12.4 million in 2003, to $30 million in 2011.
Last year, the task force arrested nearly 5,400 individuals, about 40 percent of whom accepted a plea agreement in lieu of a trial.
Grimes said area schools have told him that up to 90 percent of disciplinary problems now stem from something that happened on the Internet. John Owens, principal of Blue Mountain Middle School, said the percentage is probably minimal.
"Theyre more dramatic when it happens and they can be on the more serious end." Owens said "My theory has always been, its kind of like a road rage thing, where kids will type something that they would never say face to face."
The detective initially started speaking about internet safety, after his sons school, Brewster High School, began to have disciplinary problems related to social networking. He attended an emergency meeting held by the school district during which, he said, many parents pointed the finger to the school district.
I stood up at the meeting and I said these are our kids and its the schools job to educate them, but when theres nastiness its the parents job and the kids job to be responsible when it starts to interfere with their education, he said.
New Yorks Finest Speakers presentation is sponsored by the Cortlandt Community Coalition.
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