By Meg Peters
Review Co-Editor
Three Lake Orion polls floating around the social media site Twitter caught the attention of school officials the first week of November, as students compared everything from best shoe brands to ‘hottest? sister.
Principal Steve Hawley said for the most part the polls were not ‘necessarily negative? and have ceased.
But, he said they are a reminder of the infinite possibilities of potential computer crimes ‘that could pop up? any time after school hours.
Hawley sent a personal message through the polls to inform students of the potential school discipline and/or potential law enforcement involvement.
After the message, a tweet confirmed its deletion.
‘Sorry people deleting the account, people are making other polls that are just mean all of our tweets were approved and harmless.?
But that doesn’t mean the poll questions are gone, which can be observed by simply logging in. ?
When questioned, the students have been silent, Hawley said, and it’s more about the parents knowing what is going on.
‘I think that the schools have a responsibility, but it goes to a certain point. As a parent, I realize, and I think you folks realize, that it’s the conversation that you have at home with your kids.?
Parents were notified of the polls through a school messenger email, and of the opportunity to attend an unrelated presentation on the dangers of social media Monday night.
Detective Sergeant Darren Ofiara from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) is the head of Computer Crimes Unit, and said the polls could be an example of a chargeable offense.
‘I basically say are you going to be the bully, because I will go after you and charge you,? Ofiara said to Lake Orion schools parents Monday night.
If a complaint was made to the OCSD, depending on the communications it would have to be determined if they fit a certain statute.
‘Cyberbullying itself would not be the charge, but something along the lines of unlawful posting of a message, which is up to a two to five-year felony, depending on all the factors,? Ofiara said.
Ofiara also said he would not hesitate to charge a minor with as many offenses it takes to get a conviction if a computer crime has been committed.?
‘That’s my job.?
If the parents own the method of communication’i.e. a smartphone?, and their student is a minor, the parents will be charged with the crime.
Ofiara’s presentation enlightened parents.
‘The laws themselves, and the severity of a civil case, like an O.J. Simpson, as a parent I can be sued for everything, and I did nothing. It’s bad,? Jim, who preferred not to include his last name, said. ‘If you think about the laws for adults, we’re supposed to be adults and people are busted every day. And these are kids, they don’t know better. Every single kid needs to see this in the school in my opinion.?
Other parents in the audience agreed that the OCSD presentation on computer crimes should be shown to students at some point in their education.
Hawley confirmed that sophomores watched a slightly less graphic presentation earlier that day, and he will work to see if it can become part of the curriculum.
The presentation
While cyber bullying is one thing, Ofiara’s first priority is busting computer hijackings that lead to child abuse.
Take the Richard L. Finkbiner case, for example, which Ofiara explained during the presentation.
In 2012, Finkbiner, out of Brazil, Indiana, was charged with’engaging in an intentional, calculated, and cruel sexual exploitation and extortion scheme targeting minors across the country, according to a press release from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the southern district of Indiana’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Of his hundreds of victims across the country, one was a 14-year-old from Rochester Hills.
Utilizing the anonymous video chat website Omegle.com, Finkbiner could randomly view any person using the same site under any username he chose.?
For one particular victim, he found out the boy was a hockey player because the student was wearing sweatpants with the school logo printed on them.? A simple Google search confirmed which school the boy was from.
Finkbiner told the student he had played a great game recently. When confused, he reiterated to the student that he had hacked his computer’which he did not’and that the boy had to be his camera slave.
Ofiara said the victim only told his parents because Finkbiner had ordered him to get his brother involved too.
Of over 500 cases, only three victims came forward.
According to the press release, Finkbiner would secretly record all of his victims? videos while they engaged in sexually explicit activities.
He created over 22,000 video files.
Ofiara said in the last year alone he could not attempt to count how many computer crimes were brought forward to the OCSD.
‘I’m the only one in the county who does it, so I can only pick and choose which ones I take, but I assist other agencies with the search warrants. There are so many cases of this I would never have enough time in the day to do all these cases,? he said.
In other words, he could kick down hundreds of doors a week citing people for computer crimes.
The biggest crimes for parents to watch out for are sexting, sending inappropriately sexual pictures through a messenger, and cyberbullying.
‘Those are the big ones because they (the minors) are not thinking.?
And if a child is under 18 years old, the parent will get the bill.
‘You cannot take a specific level of pornographic picture of anyone under 18 years old. Consent law is 16, but you can’t take pictures until 18.?
Another huge issue is the amount of information that becomes public simply by creating a profile, such as a Facebook profile. Full names, birth dates, hometown origin, school location’the amount of personal information available publicly is what scares Ofiara the most.?
‘To us it would be like walking down a street wearing a sandwich board listing your name, address, your picture’You get somebody that wants it bad enough, and they will use it,? he told parents.
The problem is kids are taught to display everything about themselves via social media.
‘Snapchat is popular with a certain age group, Twitter is another age, and tomorrow it will be something else. It just continues to grow,? Hawley said.
Still, some of the hackers are intelligent, and can hack into their victims? computer systems with viruses. Any personal information will be immediately accessible and perpetrators will not hesitate to blackmail.
Preventative measures
‘I would be very cognizant of what is going on and make sure that you keep your thumb on them. I know they like privacy, but they’re still your kids. Their safety is more important,? Ofiara said.
One way to do this is to constantly monitor the social media applications students are using.
Some parents take their students? phones at night and are able to view all incoming messages and/or new social media applications.
For a different approach, parents can also monitor activity by downloading specific monitoring software programs directly onto a juvenile’s laptop or mobile phone. By law, this type of software can only be used on juveniles.
As for the student, always look for changes in their personality.
‘You’re the most comfortable with how they act. So if things start changing, and they become more protective of not letting you see things on their phone and not letting you look in their computer, add that to attitude changes, and red flags start going up.?
If parents think something is up, the best data to collect and submit is the date, time and the URL code of the application.
‘To determine who posted comments on specific profiles the companies require a date/time range and the profile ID to return information for a legally obtained search warrant,? Ofiara said.
For more information, visit the OCSD webpage on computer crimes at www.oakgov.com/sheriff/Pages/about/div_law_tech_compcrime.aspx.
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