Deputy Myers

By Deanna Myers 

The Internet, Smart Phones, and your teens…

Lately, the internet and smart phones have become quite a hot topic when dealing with young teens. Quite often as parents, we want to trust our children to make good decisions with the freedom we provide them with technology. But, the internet is a huge web of temptation for young minds. Especially when those young minds are flooded with encouragement from other young minds.

Keep in mind the smart phone you hand over to your child is the property of the person providing it (MEANING THE PARENT). You have every right to know all applications that are on the phone, and all passwords to access the information stored on the phone. Despite what your child may tell you, this is NOT an invasion of their privacy it is specifically to keep your children safe from potential predators that flood the internet and social media. It is incredibly important for parents to be up to date on the latest and greatest trends when it comes to technology. There are new applications created almost daily that assist with the concealment of information on cell phones.

Don’t be afraid to have the conversation with your child about appropriate vs. inappropriate material on the internet. Don’t be the parent that gets caught off guard when approached by a school official or law enforcement officer when it is found out that your child has been involved in inappropriate sharing of cyber material via social media or the internet. Let your child know the dangers of sending private/confidential information via Wi-Fi and the internet. They need to know once its sent its out there for anyone to grab a hold of and use. Just because it was only meant for one person, and they trust that person to delete the material, it could have been sent to ten others (or more) prior to being deleted. Also keep in mind, just because it was deleted off of a device does not mean it cannot be retrieved via electronic clouds and Wi-Fi. All in all, just keep open communication and educate yourself about the recent trends in technology.

Deanna Myers is the Volunteer and Programs Coordinator for the Jurupa Valley Station of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department that services the Eastvale Police Department.  She has been with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department for about eight years, and most recently was assigned to patrol within the City of Eastvale before moving into her current position where she is in charge of the Neighborhood Watch program for the City of Eastvale.