Educating people about how to keep children safe from predators who use the Internet to find victims can be a challenge for law enforcement.

Not only must public safety officials make people understand the importance of monitoring their children's online activities, but when an Internet-based crime does occur, police must know the best course of action.

Last week, Cape Girardeau County Juvenile offices made a full-day training program on Internet safety available to area law enforcement officers through a not-for-profit program called INOBTR, pronounced "I know better."

Topics covered by the training included the characteristics of children who are especially vulnerable to online predators, potential threats posed by social networking sites and online games, and techniques officers can use when presenting educational seminars in their community.

Juvenile officer Randy Rhodes said he wanted to have the training made available locally after one of his staff members participated in the INOBTR training program at Lake of the Ozarks and talked about its benefits.

INOBTR, previously funded through Missouri Department of Public Safety, is a public education program designed to raise awareness among both government agencies and residents about the need to practice and teach Internet safety to children.

"It gives them an idea of predators are up to and what kids are up to when they're online," Rhodes said.

About 40 officers from Cape Girardeau, Perry and Bollinger counties participated in last week's training, Rhodes said.

The crux of such training programs is to give community law enforcement agencies a better grasp of the resources available when they face Internet-based crime, said Lt. Joe Laramie, director of the Missouri Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

"There are people with technical skills able to help all across Missouri," Laramie said.

Task forces such as Laramie's are established in each state, forming a network of experts in Internet safety to provide help to individual law enforcement agencies. Cindy Schroeder, executive director of INOBTR, said that's important because of the likelihood Internet-based crimes will cross state lines.

"The perpetrator and victim don't have to live in the same city or the same state," Schroeder said.

The job of educating children about Internet safety is a task that often falls on law enforcement, Schroeder said.

"The problem is that children know so much more about the Internet than adults do," she said.

One of the reasons children can be vulnerable to Internet-based crime is a false sense of security resulting from using a computer in the comfort of their own home, Laramie said.

Presenters who ask teens if they would give a stranger on the street a card with their name, address, cell number and other identifying information will be told no, but teens may not be as guarded online, Laramie said.

"A stranger online is a stranger," Laramie said. "The thing to remember about the Internet is that we get complacent and forget that it is the real world."

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

388-3635

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