Online predators: 'They hunted girls. They lied to girls. They manipulated girls.'

Anthony Borrelli, Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

She was a 14-year-old girl spending time on an online social networking site chatting with four or five teenage boys. The back-and-forth began to fill with sexually-charged language and the girl was encouraged to perform sexual acts in front of her webcam.

But this Michigan teen — who ended up performing on camera — didn't realize who was on the other end: adult men who were well-practiced in a national conspiracy to entice girls to sexually perform over the internet.

FBI agents spent months investigating and in February indictments were unsealed against nine suspects. Broome County resident Christian Maire, 40, was pegged as the leader of this internet sexual exploitation ring.

On Wednesday, in a Michigan federal court, Maire was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

What's chilling about what the men got the 14-year-old to do in mid-2015 is that it could happen to just about any vulnerable young person who spends time networking with others online, raising questions about how parents can protect their children from becoming victims of online predators who know how to manipulate young people and exploit those social media connections.

"These men psychologically manipulated their victims to get them to engage in sexual activity on web camera on an unmonitored, chatroom-based website. They hunted girls. They lied to girls. They manipulated girls. They ganged up on girls. They sexually exploited girls," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in sentencing documents filed last week.

GOING TO PRISON: Online child predator sobs in court; sentenced to 40 years for leading porn ring

More details: How an internet sex scheme, led by a Broome County man, victimized over 100 girls

"This group did not invent the sexual exploitation of children," prosecutors said, "but they may have perfected it."

Victimization becomes easy online

The internet makes it easier than ever for sexual predators to get access to potential victims, said FBI Special Agent David Fallon, an Albany-based investigator not involved in Maire's case.

"These guys want to go where the kids are and any one of the popular social media things is perfect them," Fallon said. "Some are crimes of opportunity and some are crimes of preference, where they have a sexual interest in children and act on that."

Hunting for 'bored' girls

Maire and his accomplices came to be called the "Bored Group" by federal investigators. They spent five years creating dozens of chat-rooms for specific victims, who apparently were viewed as bored teens.

The word "bored" was used in the chat-room names, including "just bored," "borednstuff," "f*ing bored," "boredascanbe" and "soooobored."

The website and chat rooms were "primarily devoted to the production of child pornography, with multiple groups of adult males using it to target 8-17-year-old children. With the group finally landing in an un-monitored format (a website with no supervision), its members were now free to act on their sexual interest in preteen and teenage girls," according to the court documents.

Their target group was girls who were between 13 and 17 years old. However, the court documents disclose that a 10-year-old girl was lured also; she performed on camera and was recorded.

Struggling teens, preteens easily duped

Young people, especially those who might be already struggling in their family and personal relationships, can be easily duped.

"The adolescent might realize this isn't appropriate but at the same time, enjoys the experience and wants it to continue," said Kevin M. Antshel, an expert in clinical child psychology at Syracuse University. "You never know who you're talking to on the internet, so don't make assumptions."

Out of 5,863 cyber tip-line reports for online child enticement in 2015, a majority of the offenders were strangers to the victims, according to a recent study by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

By contrast, law enforcement officials generally contend many perpetrators and victims are known to each other in physical sex abuse cases.

Adolescents of the current generation have grown up as "digital natives," Antshel said, but the technology has grown faster than our ability to understand it.

'Bored Group' goal: gain trust, later manipulate

Many of the underage girls who fell for the "Bored Group" scam were troubled and vulnerable and the men gained their trust to later manipulate them, according to the court papers.

"If a girl was suicidal or revealed that she was cutting herself, the group engaged in what they called a 'trust building session.' Trust building sessions involved no discussion of sexual activity, but rather more sensitive chats about life and the child’s worth," the U.S. Attorney documents stated. "To be sure, there was no benevolence in these sessions. Instead, the group used trust building as an opportunity to further engender loyalty to the group so as to increase the chances that the girl would later engage in sexual activity on web camera."

Clearly, the conspirators hunted the most fragile and vulnerable.

More: Hunters. Talkers. Loopers. How the FBI cracked an online child exploitation ring

More: How a therapy dog could help internet sex victims in Broome man's case

One victim was targeted beginning at age 11. She suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, struggled with depression and had a service dog to assist her.

Yet not all were so obviously fragile.

One victim, an elite dancer attending a ballet school, was described by her mother in the documents as "a sensitive kid, she was precocious, intelligent and an excellent student." She suffered from anxiety about dancing well and felt isolated and lonely, according to the documents.

This young teen was exploited by the men for years. Court documents said "they manipulated and enticed her into creating more than 60 videos" of her engaged in sexual activity.

Protecting your child online

Short of pulling the plug on the Wi-Fi, what's a concerned parent to do?

Here are some safeguards the New York State Attorney General's Office recommends:

Outline which websites children can browse.

Keep appraised of who they meet or "friend" online.

Set limits on how much time they can spend online playing games or using social networks.

Know where in the house the computers can be used.

Have a written contract between parent and child that sets internet rules and lists consequences of breaking them.

Across the U.S., authorities investigate cases of online predators every year. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 10.2 million reports about suspected child sexual exploitation nationwide in 2017.

Various risk factors for internet victims can include:

• Low self-esteem and/or levels of depression.
• Social problems including a lack of parental involvement.
• Sensation-seeking; interest in the novelty of new experiences.

"The teenager's decisions tend to be more driven by emotion than logic," psychologist Antshel said. "Heightened sensitivity to anticipated rewards can motivate adolescents to engage in a risky act, and there's no brakes on the car."

If you suspect your teenager or child is involved in something inappropriate, Antshel said getting mad and yanking the phone won't necessarily fix the problem. Forcing a young person's online activity into taboo territory could simply drive it underground.

Kids who realize they've gotten over their heads might not come forward if they're to afraid of how mom and dad will react, said Fallon. If that's the case, he suggests talking to a trusted adult — a teacher or a coach.

Law enforcement can't catch an internet predator if the crime goes unreported, Fallon said, and letting it slide won't stop the predator from targeting someone else.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in a 2017 report, said offenders in these cases prefer to begin on any site that seems easiest to meet potential victims.

Christian Maire (Photo: Provided)

Certain social media sites became a "hunting ground" for Maire and his associates, the FBI said in court records.

The group utilized a variety of social media and email accounts: Kik, Discord, MyLOL, Gmail.

Online platforms such as Kik, which is a cross-platform instant messaging app, and Discord, another chat-base program, have been utilized by offenders in other child pornography cases around the Southern Tier.

Among them: Johnson City resident Jared Flanders, 34, used Kik on a dozen occasions to distribute child porn through a chat group to people in other countries, including New Zealand. Flanders is serving an eight-year federal prison sentence.

Federal authorities have not publicly named the site chiefly used by Maire's group, but the FBI said it's "primarily used by adult men seeking to sexually exploit teenage and preteen girls."

Reading Aloud to Young Children Has Benefits for Behavior and Attention

By Perri Klass, M.D.

It’s a truism in child development that the very young learn through relationships and back-and-forth interactions, including the interactions that occur when parents read to their children. A new study provides evidence of just how sustained an impact reading and playing with young children can have, shaping their social and emotional development in ways that go far beyond helping them learn language and early literacy skills. The parent-child-book moment even has the potential to help curb problem behaviors like aggression, hyperactivity and difficulty with attention, a new study has found.

“We think of reading in lots of different ways, but I don’t know that we think of reading this way,” said Dr. Alan Mendelsohn, an associate professor of pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine, who is the principal investigator of the study, “Reading Aloud, Play and Social-Emotional Development,” published in the journal Pediatrics.

The researchers, many of whom are my friends and colleagues, showed that an intervention, based in pediatric primary care, to promote parents reading aloud and playing with their young children could have a sustained impact on children’s behavior. (I am among those the authors thanked in the study acknowledgments, and I should acknowledge in return that I am not only a fervent believer in the importance of reading aloud to young children, but also the national medical director of Reach Out and Read, a related intervention, which works through pediatric checkups to promote parents reading with young children.)

This study involved 675 families with children from birth to 5; it was a randomized trial in which 225 families received the intervention, called the Video Interaction Project, and the other families served as controls. The V.I.P. model was originally developed in 1998, and has been studied extensively by this research group.

Participating families received books and toys when they visited the pediatric clinic. They met briefly with a parenting coach working with the program to talk about their child’s development, what the parents had noticed, and what they might expect developmentally, and then they were videotaped playing and reading with their child for about five minutes (or a little longer in the part of the study which continued into the preschool years). Immediately after, they watched the videotape with the study interventionist, who helped point out the child’s responses.

“They get to see themselves on videotape and it can be very eye-opening how their child reacts to them when they do different things,” said Adriana Weisleder, one of the authors of the study, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Northwestern University. “We try to highlight the positive things in that interaction — maybe they feel a little silly, and then we show them on the tape how much their kid loves it when they do these things, how fun it is — it can be very motivating.”

“Positive parenting activities make the difference for children,” said Dr. Benard Dreyer, a professor of pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine and past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who was the senior author on the study. He noted that the critical period for child development starts at birth, which is also a time when there are many pediatric visits. “This is a great time for us to reach parents and help them improve their parenting skills, which is what they want to do.”

The Video Interaction Project started as an infant-toddler program, working with low-income urban families in New York during clinic visits from birth to 3 years of age. Previously published data from a randomized controlled trial funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development showed that the 3-year-olds who had received the intervention had improved behavior — that is, they were significantly less likely to be aggressive or hyperactive than the 3-year-olds in the control group.

This new study looked at those children a year and a half later — much closer to school entry — and found that the effects on behavior persisted. The children whose families had participated in the intervention when they were younger were still less likely to manifest those behavior problems — aggression, hyperactivity, difficulty with attention — that can so often make it hard for children to do well and learn and prosper when they get to school.

Some children were enrolled in a second stage of the project, and the books and toys and videotaping continued as they visited the clinic from age 3 to 5; they showed additional “dose-response” effects; more exposure to the “positive parenting” promotion meant stronger positive impacts on the children’s behavior.

“The reduction in hyperactivity is a reduction in meeting clinical levels of hyperactivity,” Dr. Mendelsohn said. “We may be helping some children so they don’t need to have certain kinds of evaluations.” Children who grow up in poverty are at much higher risk of behavior problems in school, so reducing the risk of those attention and behavior problems is one important strategy for reducing educational disparities — as is improving children’s language skills, another source of school problems for poor children.

But all parents should appreciate the ways that reading and playing can shape cognitive as well as social and emotional development, and the power of parental attention to help children flourish. Dr. Weisleder said that in reading and playing, children can encounter situations a little more challenging than what they usually come across in everyday life, and adults can help them think about how to manage those situations.

“Maybe engaging in more reading and play both directly reduces kids’ behavior problems because they’re happier and also makes parents enjoy their child more and view that relationship more positively,” she said.

Reading aloud and playing imaginative games may offer special social and emotional opportunities, Dr. Mendelsohn said. “We think when parents read with their children more, when they play with their children more, the children have an opportunity to think about characters, to think about the feelings of those characters,” he said. “They learn to use words to describe feelings that are otherwise difficult and this enables them to better control their behavior when they have challenging feelings like anger or sadness.”

“The key take-home message to me is that when parents read and play with their children when their children are very young — we’re talking about birth to 3 year olds — it has really large impacts on their children’s behavior,” Dr. Mendelsohn said. And this is not just about families at risk. “All families need to know when they read, when they play with their children, they’re helping them learn to control their own behavior,” he said, so that they will come to school able to manage the business of paying attention and learning.

The FBI cautions parents of kindergarten through high school students of the potential safety and privacy risks associated with education technologies, or EdTech

Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: The FBI cautions parents of kindergarten through high school students of the potential safety and privacy risks associated with education technologies, or EdTech. 

The growing incorporation of devices and software into school systems facilitates learning.

It also includes the collection of student data such as …

Lynn: … Social Security numbers, academic records, any kind of disciplinary records, medical histories …

Halpern: That was Lynn, an FBI intelligence analyst who says if cyber criminals gain access to that sensitive data, then it could be exploited in many ways.

Lynn: In addition to financial exploitation, another concern we have is the use of that information for sexual exploitation or even cyber bullying.

Halpern: To help prevent these crimes, the FBI recommends that families …

Lynn: … conduct regular Internet searches of their children's information to see if there's any social media profiles, financial information, or even photos that really shouldn't be there.

Halpern: Learn more at ic3.gov. With FBI, This Week, I’m Mollie Halpern of the Bureau.

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Keep your children safe with these household danger warnings

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By Chelsey Hernandez

If you have young children, you need to know which household products could be the most dangerous. Recent data shows out of two million poison control calls, nearly half involved kids age six and under.

You've probably heard the warnings about button batteries, as young children can easily swallow them.

Consumer Reports suggest if you have toys and other household electronics, make sure you secure the battery compartments with a screwdriver.

Other dangers you may not think about are cosmetics and personal care products. Hand sanitizers, mouthwash, perfume, and -- perhaps surprisingly -- vanilla extract, are all alcohol-based.

One more piece of advice, Consumer Reports recommends keeping personal care products and cleaners in their original bottles so kids know what it is. A different container, like a travel-size bottle, may not have child-resistant caps or a safety nozzle.

The Government ‘Lost’ Nearly 1500 Children It Separated From Immigrant Parents

Nearly 1,500 migrant children placed in homes by government agencies are now missing

The Department of Health and Human Services is reporting they cannot account for nearly 1,500 migrant children who have been separated from their parents as a result of current immigration laws. Earlier this week, federal officials testified before a Senate subcommittee that the missing children were initially placed in the homes of adult “sponsors” in communities across the country — and now 1,475 of those children cannot be found.

From October to December of 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) checked with the agency responsible for placing the children with sponsors. Here’s what they found: Out of the 7,635 children, 6,075 of the children were still living with their sponsors, 28 had run away, five had been deported and 52 were living with someone else.

The 1,475 remaining children could not be found after making follow-up calls to check on their safety. Which means their whereabouts are unaccounted for and the children are missing. It’s a heartbreaking reality for many migrant families who have been separated — perhaps permanently — from their children.

Once migrant children turn 18, they can’t be held in facilities run by HHS, and the agency is required to let the Department of Homeland Security know whether the children should be detained or released into the community. But HHS only forwards those plans for one of every three children, the subcommittee found.

Many immigrant families are separated at the border, struggling to find each other among the federal agencies in charge. According to the Houston Chronicle, there aren’t many procedures in place to assist them in reuniting. In many cases, they never do. “We have seen children as young as 18 months deported without their parents and more commonly, parents deported without their children,” said Michelle Brané, executive director of the migrant rights program at the Women’s Refugee Commission, a national advocacy group. “Parents arrive in Central America with no idea of how to get their children back.”

Go ahead and let that sink in: children as young as 18 months old. Deported without their parents. Or vice versa. How can our government get away with treating human beings this way? In the wake of this news, many people are asking the same question — where are the children?

Many are also demanding action from the government, specifically the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection.

While it’s true many of the children went missing before the Trump presidency, it’s safe to say his administration’s stance on immigration — and using the separation of families as a threat to deter immigrants from entering the U.S. — will only lead to further incompetence on the government’s part to help locate these children.

Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testified before a Senate committee: “My decision has been that anyone who breaks the law will be prosecuted,” she said. “If you are parent, or you’re a single person or if you happen to have a family, if you cross between the ports of entry we will refer you for prosecution. You have broken U.S. law.”

The ACLU has created a petition addressed to the Director of Homeland Security, stating: “The Trump administration is sending the clear message that immigrants aren’t welcome here – and they don’t mind sacrificing constitutional rights and basic human decency just to get that across. They want to scare people away from coming to this country to seek a better life and aren’t afraid to admit it.”

Trinity Mount Ministries

Sex Traffickers Are Using Social Media To Target Children

Your personal data isn’t the only thing that’s vulnerable on Facebook.

The rise of social media has been a boon for sex traffickers, making it easier than ever for pimps to target, groom and sell your children, top law-enforcement officials say.

“These predators are watching, and they’re listening. They’re friending. They’re seeing, ‘Oh, she’s not happy with school,’ ‘Oh, he’s upset against his parents,’ ‘Oh, he has issues with his sexuality,’ or, ‘She’s having problems with her friends,’ ” says Inspector Jim Klein, commander of the NYPD’s Vice Enforcement Unit.

“Next thing you know, these predators pick up on this, and they start becoming friendly to the point they’re now separating these victims from everybody that’s important to them.”

Some traffickers don’t even hide what they do.

“We’ve had cases where our pimps are . . . friends with [their victims’] relatives, and they’re posting about pimping out girls and making money,” says Queens prosecutor Jessica Melton.

All they need is a cheap ad and a burner phone.

The classified-ads site Backpage.com was seized and shuttered by the feds this month, but when it was in business, 600 to 800 ads were posted for “prostitutes” in New York state each day, according to the NYPD.

Now Backpage’s rivals are moving to fill the void.

“There are multiple sites that are going up on a daily basis,” said Lt. Christopher Sharpe, head of the NYPD human-trafficking team.

Making matters worse, with transactions taking place on a screen, johns are becoming more callous, says James Goward, chief of the Criminal Enterprise Bureau of the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.

“It’s available for you like getting food delivered by Seamless,” he says.

Source

Trinity Mount Ministries

Study: Most abductions happen when a child is going to or leaving school

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Do your children know what to do if they are approached by someone without a parent around? News Channel 8 looked into where children are the most at risk, and what you should conversations parents and children should be having.

According to a study done by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, attempted abductions happen most often when a child is going to and from school, or school related activities.

St. Pete Police Officer Mark Williams says typically the abductor is not a stranger.

“More often than not, we find it is individuals that are abducted, are abducted by someone they know, so we want to make sure they understand there is a need to be aware of anyone and everyone who comes up to you and offers you something,“ he said.

Officer Williams suggests parents and children have a code word, something anyone picking up your child would know, so the child knows it is safe to go with them. If the person doesn’t know it, the child should get away, fast.

“The child should definitely turn and walk away, and we hope that if children are out they are with a partner or with a buddy. that is the main way we can keep our kids safe.”  said Officer Williams.

By Amanda Ciavarri

Leander ISD to try letting parents track their child’s bus:

Leander, Texas (KXAN) — Technicians are installing GPS systems in Leander Independent School District buses this week, in an effort to get the systems running in all operational buses by the first week of school.

“We recognize that we want to give parents the best data that we can give them, even an extension into the school bus,” said Leander Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Bret Champion. “The school bus is really the first class of a student’s day. So, we believe that and we want to make sure that kids are well taken care of from the time we pick them up to the time we get them home.”
Dr. Champion said in an interview with KXAN News Today that GPS on each school bus will let parents get real-time data about the location of their child’s bus. The district contracted with the company Zonar for the GPS technology. It plans to try a mobile app by the company that lets parents use “specific credentials” to track their child’s bus.

“For safety and security [the GPS system] is a great enhancement for us,” said Dr. Champion. “We’ll know immediately where each bus in our fleet is. We’ve got 161 routes that are running.”
Leander ISD Assistant Superintendent Veronica Sopher says the decision to install the equipment was not based on any one event. The district believes it will help make its system more efficient, improve communication with parents, and increase safety.

District officials say the GPS installation and first year of service costs $160,000. Each year after that will cost about $53,000.

The technology also has implications for safety. Last year, Leander ISD fired a bus driver after she was arrested for driving while intoxicated. Investigators believe bus driver Kathy Legrand, 61, hit a mailbox and tree limbs and drove up to 30 students while intoxicated last October. Emails obtained by KXAN News between district officials and law enforcement indicate Legrand did not return cell phone and radio calls after parents raised concerns.

“I was notified by Jim Rose, Principal at River Ridge Elementary, that several parents informed the school of a bus driving erratically on Quinlan Park Road. Mr. Rose requested I help the other bus drivers locate this bus,” wrote a Travis County Constable in an email.

A district investigation found no evidence that Legrand ever reported to the district that she was taking medications, despite telling deputies she takes up to nine medications daily, according to the district’s assistant superintendent and court records.

Arrest records state that 61-year-old Kathy Loraine Legrand admitted she took pain killers and anti-depressants. She also had beer and medication the day before she was arrested. A grand jury has not formally charged Legrand with DWI. Her next court date is September 30. KXAN News reached out to Legrand’s last listed attorney Monday, but did not immediately hear back.

    By Kevin Schwaller 

Trinity Mount Ministries Website

A year later, child safety seems to be a forgotten issue - Bengaluru (Bangalore), India

Managements have increased fees citing expenditure on CCTV cameras, installing GPS in school buses and other safety measures, but parents feel that safety measures are not up to the mark.

Schools prefer to wait for the child protection policy before “investing” in safety

Exactly a year ago, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) formulated guidelines to be implemented in schools following a spate of sexual assaults on children. However, the situation on the ground has not changed much, as most schools are yet to implement all the guidelines.

Significantly, the comprehensive child protection policy (CPP), which was formulated to collate guidelines issued by multiple departments, is yet to get the government’s nod. A high-level committee under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary V. Umesh was formed to look into child safety and the policy. The policy has been placed before the cabinet, but was sent back several times for corrections, sources said.

Managements have increased fees citing expenditure on CCTV cameras, installing GPS in school buses and other safety measures, but parents feel that safety measures are not up to the mark.

The managements’ defence is that there are multiple guidelines and they would rather wait for the CPP to be finalised before “investing” in safety.

D. Shashikumar, General Secretary of the Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said, “The guidelines issued by the police are in the High Court. Besides this, guidelines have been issued by DPI and the Transport Department. However, multiple guidelines tend to be confusing. We would rather wait for the CPP to be finalised.”

In the tussle between managements and the government, parents feel that their child’s safety is forgotten. Parimala S., a parent, feels that most schools have not even done basic things such as setting up parent teacher associations, installation of CCTV cameras in the premises and hiring support staff to accompany children in buses.

The worst of the lot are government schools which have not even issued identity cards for parents, let alone installation of cameras, due to paucity of funds. “Some government schools, which have found donors, have implemented some guidelines but a majority have not initiated any measures,” a teacher from a government school said.

TANU KULKARNI - Source: thehindu.com

Trinity Mount Ministries Website

It's OK to Run Away...

Helene Pavlov, M.D.

Fellow, American College of Radiology; Radiologist in Chief, Hospital for Special Surgery

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Posted: 11/09/2012 2:20 pm

A few weeks ago, friends of mine dropped their 10-year-old daughter off for her first skateboard lesson at a local skate park. They wandered around watching the other children skate. The environment was new, as was the instructor. After a short while, the instructor told the young girl that he "had left something in his car" and asked her to "come with him." The child probably thought this "dude" was an authority figure, and she knew that her parents were nearby, so she went with him. All was well in the end, but this is one of those situations that could have ended badly.

Now it may sound overprotective, but it made me realize what and when we should teach our children how to responsibly react to adults. How do we teach our children to judge the right adult to ask for and accept help from? We tell our children to respect adults. Children inherently trust adults, and the result is that children probably trust adults more than is warranted. Children need to be on guard when dealing with adults, especially those they do not know well.

Parents and children have cause to be concerned. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, "Nearly 800,000 children younger than 18 are missing each year, or an average of 2,185 children reported missing each day." Here are some common sense tips for kids when dealing with or confronted by a person they or their parents do not validate as "safe."

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Be on guard. Be alert. This should be the cornerstone of any child's decision-making process when it comes to communicating with strangers. They need to know not to automatically assume that "adult" equals all-knowing or trustworthy. Children should know that they do not have to be nice to an adult they do not know. If they feel threatened or uneasy or even if they just have a sense of being uncomfortable, they need to step back and evaluate the situation without being concerned about their manners. They also need to know that "nice and friendly" does not always mean "safe." A con-man/woman can dupe adults out of their money, and those that prey on children know how to seduce and know how to tap into a child's vulnerability. The child must be pre-armed to be aware and have tools of how to react.

Assess the Environment

Children should take a moment to assess the environment they are in when being approached by someone they do not know. Is it a safe place where other known adults are in close proximity? Is there a way to get away if needed? Has he or she been to this place before and do they know where the nearest safe zone is and how to get there if necessary?

Ask Questions

When a child is approached by an adult they do not know to "help" out or to direct them somewhere, an alarm should go off, especially when the child is somewhere unfamiliar or in an environment where they may be vulnerable. Why does the adult need help? Where do they want the child to go? Who said that the child should go with this person? The special "signal word" from parents is good but can easily be downplayed or dismissed by a smart pedophile.

Look for Someone of Authority

Your child should look for the nearest "safest" adult, a person of authority; a policeman or fireman, the school principal, a teacher, a friend's parent, even a store clerk or doorman. Speak with your child about how to spot someone they can trust. Good hints are official uniforms, store managers, someone they have known for a long while or who their parents trust, perhaps a parent or nanny of a friend. The child should be empowered by their parents to know it is OK to say they are not comfortable or to be rude or to ask someone else, even another stranger, to please help.

The Closest Distance Between Two Points Is a Well-Lit Straight Line

The path to getting to and from school, a friend's house, piano lessons, soccer practice, skateboarding lessons, etc. should be quick and well-lit, and practiced with a parent or older sibling until it becomes familiar. If your child is required to walk on their own, take the time to walk the route with them for the first few times and, in addition to directions on how to cross the streets, safely point out landmarks and places they can retreat to if necessary. Stores along the way are good safety zones and are an easy retreat or "safe haven" to stay until help arrives or the danger is gone. They should know they can ask the person at the cash register or behind the counter to help them and to call their parents or the police.

There Is Safety in Numbers

Kids will not always be able to travel in packs, but when they can, they should. Two is better than one, and three is better than two. Kids should travel together and before letting another child head off somewhere without a partner, they should always look out for one another. They should always ask where the other is going and if their parent knows where they will be. There is also safety in knowing numbers -- such as their street address, mom's and dad's cell numbers, the next door neighbors' numbers and other emergency contact information. Write all of this down for them, make sure it is in their backpack and if they have a cell phone, program it for them and make sure they know how to access it.

Kids need to know that their parents or caregivers care about where they are and what they are doing. It is not because you are invading their space, but because you want to protect them. You want them to feel safe. Furthermore, have them text you messages -- e.g., "in the bus," "just arrived at school," "in cab 8T12 heading home." These texts provide enormous peace of mind for the parents and let the child know you care. Responding quickly to the text with an "OK, great" lets the child know that if there is a problem, you are there for instant help and/or advice. This process provides a sense of independence to the child as well as a feeling of security; you are still there for them, even though you are not holding their hand. Everyone can feel more relaxed. It also sets up a pattern so should something bad happen, there is earlier recognition and means to get help.

Use Your Words, But When You Have to... Use Your Vocal Cords

Kids should know that they don't have to talk to someone they do not know. This is not about being polite, it is about being safe. Rude, at times, is appropriate. Not answering a stranger's approach is smart. Running away is OK. When all else fails, it's OK to scream for help. Screaming, shouting, fighting and having a tantrum gets attention.

Research and information is available. A great resource is http://missingkids.com.

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The Teen Brain: Still Under Construction:

 The Teen Brain: Still Under Construction

Introduction

One of the ways that scientists have searched for the causes of mental illness is by studying the development of the brain from birth to adulthood. Powerful new technologies have enabled them to track the growth of the brain and to investigate the connections between brain function, development, and behavior.
The research has turned up some surprises, among them the discovery of striking changes taking place during the teen years. These findings have altered long-held assumptions about the timing of brain maturation. In key ways, the brain doesn’t look like that of an adult until the early 20s.
An understanding of how the brain of an adolescent is changing may help explain a puzzling contradiction of adolescence: young people at this age are close to a lifelong peak of physical health, strength, and mental capacity, and yet, for some, this can be a hazardous age. Mortality rates jump between early and late adolescence. Rates of death by injury between ages 15 to 19 are about six times that of the rate between ages 10 and 14. Crime rates are highest among young males and rates of alcohol abuse are high relative to other ages. Even though most adolescents come through this transitional age well, it’s important to understand the risk factors for behavior that can have serious consequences. Genes, childhood experience, and the environment in which a young person reaches adolescence all shape behavior. Adding to this complex picture, research is revealing how all these factors act in the context of a brain that is changing, with its own impact on behavior.
The more we learn, the better we may be able to understand the abilities and vulnerabilities of teens, and the significance of this stage for life-long mental health.
The fact that so much change is taking place beneath the surface may be something for parents to keep in mind during the ups and downs of adolescence.

The "Visible" Brain

A clue to the degree of change taking place in the teen brain came from studies in which scientists did brain scans of children as they grew from early childhood through age 20. The scans revealed unexpectedly late changes in the volume of gray matter, which forms the thin, folding outer layer or cortex of the brain. The cortex is where the processes of thought and memory are based. Over the course of childhood, the volume of gray matter in the cortex increases and then declines. A decline in volume is normal at this age and is in fact a necessary part of maturation.
The assumption for many years had been that the volume of gray matter was highest in very early childhood, and gradually fell as a child grew. The more recent scans, however, revealed that the high point of the volume of gray matter occurs during early adolescence.
While the details behind the changes in volume on scans are not completely clear, the results push the timeline of brain maturation into adolescence and young adulthood. In terms of the volume of gray matter seen in brain images, the brain does not begin to resemble that of an adult until the early 20s.
The scans also suggest that different parts of the cortex mature at different rates. Areas involved in more basic functions mature first: those involved, for example, in the processing of information from the senses, and in controlling movement. The parts of the brain responsible for more "top-down" control, controlling impulses, and planning ahead—the hallmarks of adult behavior—are among the last to mature.

What's Gray Matter?

The details of what is behind the increase and decline in gray matter are still not completely clear. Gray matter is made up of the cell bodies of neurons, the nerve fibers that project from them, and support cells. One of the features of the brain's growth in early life is that there is an early blooming of synapses—the connections between brain cells or neurons—followed by pruning as the brain matures. Synapses are the relays over which neurons communicate with each other and are the basis of the working circuitry of the brain. Already more numerous than an adult's at birth, synapses multiply rapidly in the first months of life. A 2-year-old has about half again as many synapses as an adult. (For an idea of the complexity of the brain: a cube of brain matter, 1 millimeter on each side, can contain between 35 and 70 million neurons and an estimated 500 billion synapses.)
Scientists believe that the loss of synapses as a child matures is part of the process by which the brain becomes more efficient. Although genes play a role in the decline in synapses, animal research has shown that experience also shapes the decline. Synapses "exercised" by experience survive and are strengthened, while others are pruned away. Scientists are working to determine to what extent the changes in gray matter on brain scans during the teen years reflect growth and pruning of synapses.

A Spectrum of Change

Research using many different approaches is showing that more than gray matter is changing:

• Connections between different parts of the brain increase throughout childhood and well into adulthood. As the brain develops, the fibers connecting nerve cells are wrapped in a protein that greatly increases the speed with which they can transmit impulses from cell to cell. The resulting increase in connectivity—a little like providing a growing city with a fast, integrated communication system—shapes how well different parts of the brain work in tandem. Research is finding that the extent of connectivity is related to growth in intellectual capacities such as memory and reading ability.
• Several lines of evidence suggest that the brain circuitry involved in emotional responses is changing during the teen years. Functional brain imaging studies, for example, suggest that the responses of teens to emotionally loaded images and situations are heightened relative to younger children and adults. The brain changes underlying these patterns involve brain centers and signaling molecules that are part of the reward system with which the brain motivates behavior. These age-related changes shape how much different parts of the brain are activated in response to experience, and in terms of behavior, the urgency and intensity of emotional reactions.
• Enormous hormonal changes take place during adolescence. Reproductive hormones shape not only sex-related growth and behavior, but overall social behavior. Hormone systems involved in the brain's response to stress are also changing during the teens. As with reproductive hormones, stress hormones can have complex effects on the brain, and as a result, behavior.
• In terms of sheer intellectual power, the brain of an adolescent is a match for an adult's. The capacity of a person to learn will never be greater than during adolescence. At the same time, behavioral tests, sometimes combined with functional brain imaging, suggest differences in how adolescents and adults carry out mental tasks. Adolescents and adults seem to engage different parts of the brain to different extents during tests requiring calculation and impulse control, or in reaction to emotional content.
• Research suggests that adolescence brings with it brain-based changes in the regulation of sleep that may contribute to teens' tendency to stay up late at night. Along with the obvious effects of sleep deprivation, such as fatigue and difficulty maintaining attention, inadequate sleep is a powerful contributor to irritability and depression. Studies of children and adolescents have found that sleep deprivation can increase impulsive behavior; some researchers report finding that it is a factor in delinquency. Adequate sleep is central to physical and emotional health.

The Changing Brain and Behavior in Teens

One interpretation of all these findings is that in teens, the parts of the brain involved in emotional responses are fully online, or even more active than in adults, while the parts of the brain involved in keeping emotional, impulsive responses in check are still reaching maturity. Such a changing balance might provide clues to a youthful appetite for novelty, and a tendency to act on impulse—without regard for risk.
While much is being learned about the teen brain, it is not yet possible to know to what extent a particular behavior or ability is the result of a feature of brain structure—or a change in brain structure. Changes in the brain take place in the context of many other factors, among them, inborn traits, personal history, family, friends, community, and culture.

Teens and the Brain: More Questions for Research

Scientists continue to investigate the development of the brain and the relationship between the changes taking place, behavior, and health. The following questions are among the important ones that are targets of research:

• How do experience and environment interact with genetic preprogramming to shape the maturing brain, and as a result, future abilities and behavior? In other words, to what extent does what a teen does and learns shape his or her brain over the rest of a lifetime?
• In what ways do features unique to the teen brain play a role in the high rates of illicit substance use and alcohol abuse in the late teen to young adult years? Does the adolescent capacity for learning make this a stage of particular vulnerability to addiction?
• Why is it so often the case that, for many mental disorders, symptoms first emerge during adolescence and young adulthood?

This last question has been the central reason to study brain development from infancy to adulthood. Scientists increasingly view mental illnesses as developmental disorders that have their roots in the processes involved in how the brain matures. By studying how the circuitry of the brain develops, scientists hope to identify when and for what reasons development goes off track. Brain imaging studies have revealed distinctive variations in growth patterns of brain tissue in youth who show signs of conditions affecting mental health. Ongoing research is providing information on how genetic factors increase or reduce vulnerability to mental illness; and how experiences during infancy, childhood, and adolescence can increase the risk of mental illness or protect against it.

The Adolescent and Adult Brain

It is not surprising that the behavior of adolescents would be a study in change, since the brain itself is changing in such striking ways. Scientists emphasize that the fact that the teen brain is in transition doesn't mean it is somehow not up to par. It is different from both a child's and an adult's in ways that may equip youth to make the transition from dependence to independence. The capacity for learning at this age, an expanding social life, and a taste for exploration and limit testing may all, to some extent, be reflections of age-related biology.
Understanding the changes taking place in the brain at this age presents an opportunity to intervene early in mental illnesses that have their onset at this age. Research findings on the brain may also serve to help adults understand the importance of creating an environment in which teens can explore and experiment while helping them avoid behavior that is destructive to themselves and others.

Alcohol and the Teen Brain

Adults drink more frequently than teens, but when teens drink they tend to drink larger quantities than adults. There is evidence to suggest that the adolescent brain responds to alcohol differently than the adult brain, perhaps helping to explain the elevated risk of binge drinking in youth. Drinking in youth, and intense drinking are both risk factors for later alcohol dependence. Findings on the developing brain should help clarify the role of the changing brain in youthful drinking, and the relationship between youth drinking and the risk of addiction later in life.

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NIH Publication No. 11-4929
2011

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