By JUSTIN BEDDALL Staff Reporter Sep 15 2005 ©
Copyright 2005 found at North
Shore Outlook
Other members are equally scantily clad. (The site does, however, warn:
"Every picture put on the site is checked for content before going on
your profile - If you can't wear it in the street/beach it's not
allowed.") In a note to other users, hump.me tells her pool of
potential new friends: "Uhm Hi. I dont know how to use this site at
all so give me a break. I guess this is where I'm soposed [sic] to tell you
about me. Uhm I have really blonde hair with like dark underneeth [sic] and
im average height and keegan says i have big boobs but whatever and i play
soccer and feild hockey."
Not surprisingly, parents are drop-jawed.
One North Van mother, who did not want to be identified, is fearful that
her daughter, also a 15-year-old registered user, may fall prey to a cyber
predator. She found out that her daughter was using the Canada-based site
one day while she was on the family computer and a drop-down menu contained
the Nexopia URL address. Her daughter was 14 at the time. The mother did
some net detective work.
"I didn't realize what it was until I got more information and found
her profile name," she said. "I said to my daughter that anyone
who is a predator can click on 15 [years old] North Vancouver."
Although the mother has tried to convince her daughter to stay off the
site, she knows that monitoring her daughter's computer use 24/7 is
impossible. "What control can I have?"
Still, since she first discovered that her daughter was a registered
Nexopia user, she's felt an overwhelming sense of dread. "These kids
are exposing themselves to anyone out there who wants to take advantage at
the time," she said.
Particularly troubling about Nexopia is that like adult dating websites,
users are able to search the site, which boasts some 473,376 users, using
different parameters, such as girls and boys between the ages of 14 and 30,
sexuality (heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual) or dating situation.
North Vancouver School District No. 44 is doing its best to educate
students, teachers and parents about Nexopia. Stephen Lamb, District 44 IT
manager, said, "We've been aware of and dealing with the ramifications
of Nexopia and similar Web sites for some time.
Lamb, in fact, has for the past six years been dealing with issues relating
to internet safety, educating teachers, counsellors, students (from Grade 4
on) and parents about the dangers associated with posting personal
information on web sites like Nexopia.
Nexopia was the topic of special meetings he arranged with staff and
counsellors, at both the secondary and elementary school levels, at the end
of the last school year.
"Nexopia is a good example of students making some ill-advised
choices," he explained, "basically putting themselves at risk by
providing personal and private information on-line."
Nexopia is blocked from all District 44 computers, he added.
"These are community issues," he explained, "not just the
four walls of schools." Lamb noted that parents are floored when they
learn about the content of a site like Nexopia. "In most cases parents
are very surprised."
Lamb said most teens using these sites just expect that the info being
posted is only being viewed by their own peer group. They're dead wrong.
"They're not understanding the ramifications," he said, adding
that by sharing personal info, children are putting themselves in the
cross-hairs of predators and pedophiles "who pick up on these bad
practices."
Lamb said he feels his role is not to "demonize" or make
"moral judgements" about teens using sites like Nexopia but
rather to educate students - along with teachers, parents and counsellors -
that by doing so "they're putting themselves at risk."
"We've been very proactive on online internet safety for kids and
raising awareness," Lamb said. "It's an ongoing issue we're
dealing with.
Natalie Frizzo, a 14-year-old West Van student, had an account with Nexopia
briefly.
"My mom thought it wasn't very safe and I had to delete my
account," she said, noting that most of her peer group use the site.
"Everyone in my grade has it."
Another teen, Rachelle Rovner, was also told by her parents to delete her
account at the site. "I think they're overreacting a little bit,"
she said. "Because you're not going to talk to somebody you don't
know."
Rovner, a 14-year-old North Van student, says she used the site to leave
messages and talk to friends whose computers don't support MSN. She said
she would never give out any personal information to a stranger or meet up
with somebody she didn't know. "It's retarded," she said.
Still, the NVSD isn't the only education system worried about Nexopia.
At Tom Baines Junior High School in Alberta, a newsletter sent out last
March warned parents about the site: "Recently at Tom Baines we have
seen a burst of activity in student computer related concerns. It has come
to our attention that students are accessing from home a website called
Nexopia ( www.Nexopia.com )," the newsletter stated. "Nexopia is
a "free" service that allows its members to post personal
information on the web. Information young people are posting may include:
name, date of birth, sexual orientation, location (City, sometimes school),
living arrangements, availability for dating, likes and dislikes. The site
also allows individuals to post photos and other pictures, and chat with
one another. The school staff are very concerned about the risk some of our
students are placing themselves in by using Nexopia. Nexopia is not a
secure or private website. Any one in the world can look at the postings.
"Students are revealing a great deal of personal and private
information. Identity theft is a real concern when personal information is
made so readily available. Students reveal where they go to school, their
schedules, photos of themselves, and their personal fears. In the worst
case scenarios adult or even older teen predators can find out a great deal
about someone from the information posted. Some students have posted
compromising pictures of themselves wearing little or very revealing
clothing. Other students have made offensive remarks that border on
"hate crime" type statements. Still others are using the Nexopia
site to provide a vehicle for cyber bullying. Recently in Cochrane a man
was charged for stalking two girls who he had discovered through Nexopia.
He knew their names, where they went to school, their daily schedules,
their favourite hangouts and what they looked like!
"Parents are urged to talk with their children about keeping personal
information private. The dangers of revealing too much to people you do not
know through the Internet is considerable."
Nexopia does, however, offer some advice on safety concerns for its growing
on-line community: "Anyone can be anything on the Internet: someone
claiming to be a 15 year old girl may be a 45 year old man." Also, the
website creators warn, "Don't ever give out personal information on
your profile or to strangers. Profiles are publicly visible to anyone, so
don't include your last name, phone numbers, addresses, school names or
anything that can lead someone to you."
A final piece of advice for users: "Take precautions when meeting
people - If you are going to meet someone always take a friend, go to an
open and public place and make sure someone you trust knows where you are
going and when you'll be back. Taking a cell phone helps provide extra
security."
There is also advice provided to parents at the site's homepage: "Be
aware of what your child is doing on-line; place the computer in a common
family area. That way you can easily keep an eye on what they're
doing."
Although the Nexopia site also notes that they work with the Calgary and
Edmonton police to keep their users safe - "We would like to take this
opportunity to mention that Nexopia is probably the largest site of its
type in Canada, and also one of the most responsible." - there's still
no way of ensuring the safety of users from pedophiles and other cyber
stalkers.
That's why NVSD will continue to do its best to bring students, parents and
teachers up to speed about the dangers of disseminating personal info on
the internet and meeting up with strangers.
Ken Neale, Safe and Caring Schools Program Coordinator for NVSD, said North
Vancouver's vigilance on internet safety will continue this school year.
"We have a focus this year on violence prevention and internet safety
is a big part of that." t
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