Sgt. Amy Gonzales, investigator at the Office of the Attorney General, was one of the guest speakers at the “Break the Silence 3K Walk/Run” Saturday, April 15 at Murphy Park. Here are some things she recommended.
Social media is NOT PRIVATE! It doesn’t matter if your personal account is set to private, it is NOT PRIVATE. Even if you download something and decide not to post it, it is monitored.
READ THAT AGAIN!
ANY app or game that has a messaging feature, rest assured that predators are there lurking and waiting for an opportunity.
Have a talk with kids about strangers online. Adding them and allowing them into your online world is dangerous.
Here are some points to remember:
• Young children NEED supervision of their phone activity.
• Most content is created in the dark. Take phones away from children at bedtime.
• Children as young as four years old can create explicit content when prompted by predators.
• Did you know that in the state of Texas, any child age 10 and over can be charged with a crime?
Gonzales explained there are many, many monitoring apps out there for parents to use.
One recommendation for parents is to download the app Bark. It will monitor cyber bullying, extortion, threads and notify the parents.
Gonzales made a point of saying she is not affiliated with that company. She uses it herself to monitor her children.
You can also join the Facebook group Parenting in a Tech World or contact her directly at amy.gozales@oag. texas.gov.
