Students In Training has arranged for a free seminar June 7 to help inform the Hispanic community about the dangers the Internet poses to children.
The free seminar will take place at 1:45 p.m. at Sacred Heart School, 123 N. Ellis St. in Salisbury and will be presented in Spanish.
Hugo and Christi Gareis created and will present the seminar. Hugo, a native of Argentina, has been involved in the High Tech Industry for more than 25 years and with his wife, Christi, has been parenting for 26 years. The Internet has been a part of their family life since it became readily available in the late 1990s.
This seminar covers how integrated the Internet has become in our children’s lives.
Most cell phones today are now Internet capable and children are increasingly allowed unsupervised access to the Internet via the family computer and now their cell phones. Yet most parents are unaware that, according to Web Wise Kids, in a survey 69 percent of teens revealed that they regularly receive personal messages online from people they don’t know and most of them don’t tell a trusted adult about it.
According to Cox Communications Teen Internet safety Survey Wave II from March 2007, 60 percent of teens say they usually ask who the person is, with 31 percent saying they usually reply and chat with people they don’t know. One in seven children receives unwanted sexual solicitations from strangers online and 89 percent of these solicitations take place in chat rooms.
In addition to the high probability of accidentally landing on a porn site, there is also the danger of stumbling onto graphic Web sites that depict the horrors of real car accidents among other gruesome events.
Children today need to know how to protect themselves from predators online, not just the stranger at a local park.
In addition to educating parents about potential Internet dangers, the seminar will teach parents what steps they can take to help prevent this from happening.
Parents will also learn how to create rules for being safety online and to create a family contract for Internet safety.
This free seminar is being presented by Students In Training, located at 112B S. Main Street. Salisbury, Students In Training is a non-profit organization that helps to provide low income individuals and families with computers in hopes of helping to bridge the digital divide.
This seminar is one more step in this goal of bridging the digital divide ó the one that exists between parents and their digitally inclined children.
When asked why S.I.T would want to present this seminar to the Hispanic community, Director Mike Hallett responded: “The need exists to inform Spanish-speaking families of the pitfalls of the Internet. S.I.T. is proud to partner with Hugo and Christi in presenting the seminar they have created that teaches parents how to protect their children from the inherent dangers of the Internet.”
An English version of the seminar will follow later this summer.
For more information about the seminar, call Christi Gareis at 336-247-1922; or, if you are more comfortable speaking in Spanish, call Hugo Gareis at 336-247-1328.
Because seating is limited, participants are urged to arrive early.