We marked Safer Internet Day earlier this month, a worldwide campaign to make cyberspace a safer and more responsible place and raise awareness of the threats for young people online to be lured into dangerous, criminal and potentially life-threatening activities. It’s a timely topic here — Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares recently hosted a discussion about the need to protect children from online threats.
“There’s a lot of danger out there, but probably the most danger for our kids is online,” Miyares was quoted as saying. “Your child is not going to meet a child predator in the neighborhood, a parking lot or playground. They’re going to meet him online.”
Kenneth Ragland
Today, bad guys lurk in the amorphous world of cyberspace, which for so many kids has displaced the safer meeting spaces — the basketball courts and ballfields, the youth clubs and fast-food joints — that I recall from my youth.
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Today’s predators use readily available information and images, like shared milestones or photos, to target and exploit youth. They conduct phishing expeditions on popular social media platforms. Armed with even a little information about someone, predators worm their way into young lives, those who by their nature are innocent, vulnerable and unsuspecting, especially when the predator is posing as a fellow child or teen.
There are cases where kids were lured to meet and then were kidnapped, a leading method for pulling youth into the web of human trafficking. Older boys and girls may think they are invincible, but in fact most abductions involve teenage victims. Other crimes involve sextortion, where youth are persuaded to provide graphic images of themselves and are then extorted by the predator. Soliciting young people to buy drugs, forcing kids to become mules in the localized drug trade, engaging them in theft schemes — all of these occur in cyberspace’s dark corners.
What’s more, as our attorney general noted, constantly developing AI technology provides predators with the dangerous capability to use photos unwittingly shared by children to create fake, disturbing, exploitative images.
The numbers stagger the mind. From 2021 to 2023, the number of reports of online child enticement received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children rose more than 300%, from 44,155 to 186,819. And they continue to rise. Last year alone, just through early October, the center had received more than 456,000 reports.
Cyber platforms where predators may lurk are everywhere around us, and new sites that appeal to young audiences emerge every day. As has always been true with kids, an activity that becomes popular with others is hard to resist, and not all these platforms have robust protections or safeguards to screen potential predators. Even Smart TVs, gaming consoles and virtual assistant devices connect young people to cyberspace. Esports players often don’t know who they’re competing against and may unintentionally share personal information, opening a virtual window for a predator to climb through.
Growing up in Philadelphia, I never imagined something called cyberspace, let alone how a person whose face I couldn’t see and whose voice I couldn’t hear could hurt me. In my day, the bad guys were known players, and we were all too familiar with the ways they would bully, threaten or do other bad things.
I had the great fortune to participate in our local Police Athletic League (PAL) where I played sports, took field trips to places I would never have otherwise seen, and received wise counsel and support from adult mentors and coaches, including police officers who volunteered their time.
Just as I had a safe place growing up, and people to steer me away from the bad guys, I want today’s kids to know the same safety, protection and guidance in the place where they most often hang out — cyberspace.
As president of the Board of National Police Athletic and Activities Leagues (National PAL), with 200 chapters nationwide serving 2 million youth, I’m leading an effort to raise awareness about how young people can protect themselves from online danger. One way we’re doing that is through our collaboration with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Know2Protect, a comprehensive cyber safety campaign.
Discussing this topic with young people can be challenging. Yet the ubiquity of cyber activity provides opportunities throughout any given day to remind them that not everyone they meet online has good intentions, and that it’s not safe to share information or images with people they don’t know and trust.
If you’re a child’s parent, guardian, caregiver, mentor, relative, teacher or friend, please take a moment to discuss online safety with them. It’s our duty to protect them from what lurks in the internet’s dark shadows.
From the Archives: Richmond Police Mounted Unit
Four of Richmond's policemen found the old horse watering fountain to their mounts' liking in its new spot at the Chamberlayne-Leigh Street triangle. It was moved from Adams and Broad Streets when improvements were made to that corner, and was filled with water, finally, this week. The policemen: (left to right) H. E. Beasley, W. L. Frick, W. J. Simcoe and C. E. Minter.
08-15-1966 (cutline): Patrolman J. L. Carlton (left), W. L. Frick in Old Stable. City has had problems obtaining new quarters for mounted squad.
01-13-1965 (cutline): Police stable at Howitzers Armory, used since 1941, is to be vacated. City officials are seeking site and plan to construct new facility.
11-30-1967 (cutline): A police horse tied up to a signal light pole at 9th and Marshall Steets seems to be trying to decide whether to push the button and cross the street. He didnt, however, but waited until his master, Lt. H. D. Chadick, returned from duties at police headquarters across the street.
09-07-1979 (cutline): The life of a policeman's horse is one of many temptations for Moose, ridden by Officer Ralph K. Ballowe. Moose is constantly under the eye of the law, but how is a horse expected to pass up a basketful of goodies such as those of the 17th Street Market? Sometimes the fruit sellers solve Moose's problems by slipping him an apple or two.
02-18-1986 (cutline): Saddles and tack lay ready for the day to start.
12-04-1969 (cutline): Little girl pets Jasper, horse of Patrolman Jame L. Carlton.
09-28-1954 (cutline): A police department mount stands guard over (and in) a "no parking" zone outside the Hotel Richmond today, while officer in sight directed traffic at the entrance of Capitol Square. No tickets were in evidence when the picture was taken.
07-23-1977 (cutline): "Rusy," the Bureau of Police's prize horse, bites the ribbon to open the free parking stall in the First & Merchants Copr. Shockoe Parking Deck at 12th and Cary Streets. Police officer Hal Flood is helping Rusty cut the ribbon. The horse has been on the police force for more than six years and has worked with Flood for 2 1/2 years. His beat is the Shockoe Slip area, from Eighth to 14th Street and from the State Capitol to Canal. but he spends most of his time between 12th and 13th and Cary and Main Streets.
02-18-1986 (cutline): Diamond gets his trim before his day begins patroling the streets of Richmond.
01-17-1966 (cutline): Police Bureau's Mounted Squad gathers on Grace Street during Inauguration Day. Mills Godwin was to become Virginia's Governor.
Kenneth Ragland is board president of the National Police Athletic/Activities Leagues and the founder and executive director of the Henrico County PAL. He is a former police officer in Philadelphia and Henrico County, where he worked extensively in community policing and youth outreach. He can be reached at kragland@nationalpal.org.
