My name is Jamie Hanlon. I work with the police department in the town of Ashland. I've been working with them for about 12 years now. Last six years I was assigned to the Investigations Division where I had to focus on digital forensics, whether that be cell phone downloads, social media, called detail records, and I've since been promoted to Sargent and have moved back to the road but still have a strong passion of teaching individuals about the dangers of social media. Because as I was doing digital digital forensics it came aware that not everybody knew the dangers that were out there that some people could face. So with that I have a little presentation to give to everyone regarding the dangers of social media and a breakdown in communication. So this first slide is just pictures of different apps that are used for social media, some that you may recognize, there's X, which was formerly Twitter, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Skype, a couple that you wouldn't necessarily recognize. There's Omega, Kick, Live Chat Roulette, which are all chat programs that individuals can used to solicit other individuals where you don't necessarily know who you're talking to. Another one that I've recently added is Roblox. I have three nephews who play this game constantly and they play Fortnite and other live streaming games that have in-game chats, where you don't know who you're talking to. So I just think that it's important for parents and others to be aware of the games that the kids play and what issues could arise from them. Another one on there is Discord. It actually started as a gaming app where individuals would get on and chat while in games that is now since, unfortunately, turned into a predator website where predators go on on pretending to be individuals that they're not to solicit juveniles. Some social media concerns, child exploitation to include trafficking, sexual assault, sexting, which is, can lead to the production and distribution of child pornography and cyber bullying. And we're going to talk about each of these throughout the presentation. So some of the general concerns with social media, posting problems, once you put something out there, it's out there forever, it can affect college, housing, employment opportunities. People can take screenshots of what you post. I will tell you right now that the extractions and information that I've gotten from social media websites, that even though you think that it's deleted, it's not. When it is out there, it is out there forever. Privacy, be sure that you're looking at your settings. They don't always work, others can forward, repost, or screenshot, so you always want to be cognitive of what you're putting on your social media platforms. Potential targets, your personal information, Internet predators can make decisions on who to go after, identity theft, property crimes, a lot of people post when they go on vacation. If your private sea settings are to the public, who's going to know that you're on vacation? Potential people that want to break into your homes. And then the solicitation of minors. People pretending to be other individuals, pretending to be juveniles to gain the trust of minors. So this week is child exploitation awareness week. This presentation is garnered for child exploitation along with cyberbullying. I hope to host another presentation during cyberbullying awareness. So what is child exploitation? It is when someone uses a child for financial gain, sexual gratification, labor, or personal advantage. It can infect use of any age, race, geographical location, or social economic status. It can occur online and through social media applications. This is just a one survey that I found while researching because it's a very hard thing to receive reports on just looking through police reports because we have different case statuses for different offenses. So in researching, I found a couple actual surveys regarding child exploitation and cyberbullying. This online survey was done in 2021 for young adults ages 18 to 28 and it was around 2639 participants. of those they've reported lifetime exposures, one for online sexual abuse, 15.6% of those, roughly 2600 individuals. Image-based sexual abuse, 11%, self-produced child sexual abuse images when you're producing your own, when the child is producing their own images, 7.2%, non-consensual sex team, online grooming by adults 5.4%. And that's just the website regarding this survey for the article. What is sexting? sexting is the sending of sexual explicit messages or images by cell phone. What is cyberbullying? The electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person such as a student often done anonymously. So who sex? Sex. It's difficult to assess exact number since mostly based on self-promoting reporting. Some studies show females are more likely to send and males are more likely to request and receive study in 2018 concluded sexting has increased over time and is being more common practice with 14.8% of youths sending sex and 27.4% receiving. Obviously there's an increase because what else has increased? Cell phones. The age in which kids are getting cell phones is becoming younger and younger. They're getting on these apps, Snapchat, Instagram, thinking that messages are going away when in fact they're not. And one in eight youths report forwarding or having a sex forward without their consent. That is prime example of you're dating somebody, these kids, send a sex retaliation, they break up, and the ex-boyfriend girlfriend wants to retaliate, take a screenshot of the message that you've sent, and now your photograph is out there for everybody else to see. Friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, boys, predators, are all examples of who sends sex messages. Examples, friends, they'll air drop montage. I know that I wanna say one of the local schools, believe it was Patrick Henry, had an instance where photos just get air dropped to the entire school. So air drop montage including private video photos for entire school, boyfriend girlfriends, as I mentioned the retaliation. Bullies using social media or social pressures to get a private photo and then circulating it in group chats. I know I've dealt with incident regarding the bullies recently of think that they're sending a photo to somebody. It gets green captured. It then gets edited with circles and its own text messages and then redistributed to other kids. And then, predators. Unintending consequences, your privacy, it affects your family, it affects your friends, criminal charges, including felony convictions, potential of sex offender registry, and working through being victim. Criminal charges pertaining to sexting, as I mentioned, child pornography means sexually explicit visual material which utilizes or has a subject an identifiable minor. So this is one thing that minors, juveniles, young adults do not think about when they are texting. They take a photo of themselves, they've now produced child pornography. They've sent the photo, they've now distributed child pornography, which are felony charges. So it's something important to have a talk with your kids about this and the consequences that it could face. So production of child pornography, possession distribution of child pornography, use of communication device, and unlawful filming. The next couple slides just kind of delves into those particular charges, not going to read them verbatim, but it kind of gives you an idea of the different charges. So production of child pornography, you accost entice or solicit a person less than 18 years of age, with intent to induce or force such person to perform and or be a subject of child pornography. The possession distribution, I think this is where minors and young adults can get into trouble is any person who knowingly possesses child pornography is guilty of a classic felony. So you take a photo of yourself as a juvenile, send it to friends, that's the distribution, and then that person is now possessing child pornography. And then any person who knowingly reproduces, so that goes into the bullies, reproducing the images, sending them to other friends, are guilty of the possession distribution. Use of a communication device, it is a lawful for any person to use a communication system, example a cell phone or a computer, including, but not limited to computer networks, or any other electronic means for the purpose of producing, or promoting the use of a minor for any activity of displeasure or solicitation of child pornography. Then unlawful filming is of any person knowingly and intentionally creating a videographic or still image of someone who's in an undressed state. Cyberbullying, anything that gets posted online and is mean to hurt, harass or upset someone else. It's easier to commit this type of bullying because it can be done anonymously. You can log in, create any type of fake Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram account, and harass individuals. And a lot of the times, you don't need to confront the victim in person. It can be hard to notice, recognize because it's not something parents, teachers, or friends can overhear or see. It's not something that you can hear in the hallway as you're walking the class. And a lot of the times the kids don't come forward regarding it. A 2022 social crime supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey was done with students ages 12 to 18 in grade 6 to 12 who reported being bullied during school. 19.2% of all students, about 21.6% reported being bullied online or by texts. A 2023 survey conducted by the cyberbullying research showed 26.5% of US teens reported being cyberbullied, a number that has steadily increased over the past years. And that is just due to social media, internet, cell phones, increasing as well. 54% of US teens reported that bullying, both in-person and electronic, was a significant issue in their schools, an increase from 43% in 2016. So I feel like these numbers are just going to continue rising the more that social platforms continue to rise. Effects of cyberbullying can lead to emotional and physical harm to include incidents of self-harming suicide, things to look for, to note, if you notice changes in your minors or school-aged kids, mood, sleep, appetite. Are they having an increased anxiety, depression? Criminal charges pertaining to cyberbullying. Written threats, constitutes a felony, and then profane threatening or indecent language over the airways as a misdemeanor. It's a community-wide crisis. It's not just in Hanover County. It's in the United States and worldwide. And general text messages can result in hurt feelings due to a lack of context slash social cues. So what are some investigative tactics that I've used regarding these types of cases? Search warrants for records to include phone records, cell phone extractions, IP addresses, location data, you can get a lot of that from photos. Downloading electronics such as cell phones and computers, and just because you delete it doesn't mean it's gone. That is a big thing for people to realize that once it's out there, it's out there. And even though the social media platform says, oh as soon as you read it, it disappears. That's not the case. Personal observations, it's present in all areas of Ashland and Hanover County, regardless of socio-economic status, families on both sides of the aisle are upset and emotional, and everyone claims they did not know about the criminal liability regarding the cyberbullying child exploitation, the sexting. Defense attorneys for these charges are expensive, and no matter the prosecution result result no one wins. Avoid cases getting to court. There are a lot of sickos on the internet waiting to take advantage of any unsuspecting naive minor. So it's a good thing to talk with your kids about who they're chatting with, who they're communicating with so they understand the dangers of social media. People generally, both adults and juveniles, have less concern for their personal privacy and insist on putting everything out there, putting themselves at great risk for becoming a victim, i.e., the, I'm going on vacation, and having your social media is not locked down, public access, and everybody's able to get information. If you have kids, posting photos of your kids, a lot of people enjoy doing the first day of school photos. What do those signs display? The kids' names, their schools, their teachers' names. They're like, so just things to be mindful of that you're putting out on the internet and put the public in get access to. As disturbing in a necessary number of criminal cases arise out of the use of social media. Adjusting the issue, obviously the big thing, which is never going to happen of getting rid of all devices and internet in your house. I mean, if you want to sure fire away of not dealing with social media concerns, get rid of the cell phones and computers. Parental passwords, regular supervision, and stillings parental passwords on your children's phones, regularly taking their phones, supervising what are they going through, what are they accessing, and what are they posting? Promote non-phone tablet computer related activities and healthy friendships and relationships. Teach your children, safe internet habits of not posting photos with your license plate, home address, revisit your own online use and consider what you are modeling for your children and in education of the consequences and most importantly communication. The next couple of slides they're included in the little brochures as well are just a couple different resources, sites regarding child exploitation and cyberbullying. The That not cool.com is a cyberbullying website. Missing kids. It's a safety education program. It has some good videos and activities that you can do with your kids. Regarding online safe ways of using social media. I cast Task Force, which is the US and Task Force for Endangered, now, Internet Crimes against children. They have some great resources on their website as well. The Institute of, and then those are the journals that I got the statistics from. Contact information. My name is Jamie. If you guys have any questions, you can always reach out, email me. I'm more than happy to answer any types of questions regarding social media safety and internet safety. Like I've been doing it for the last six years and even I within those six years learned quite a bit regarding social media concerns. Any questions? Any questions?