Cyber Crime Awareness Event Thursday For Putnam Parents

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Department will hold an event Thursday night to teach parents of Putnam County students how to protect their children online.

Putnam County Sheriff Eddie Farris said cybercrime has been steadily rising for years. Farris said Detective Rick Wistocki is an expert in this field and will spend the evening educating parents on the dangers of the internet and social media.

“Social media really is truly the devil at work,” Farris said. “Of course, there are some good things with that, that come along with social media, but there’s a whole lot of bad. So, we’re just wanting to touch on some of the few things.”

Farris said Wistocki will touch on the prevalence of sexting and cyberbullying in school-aged kids and teenagers. He said many parents are at an age where they do not understand the platforms children are using, which makes it difficult to monitor a child’s internet presence.

“Make sure the kids and the children and young adults understand that there’s a whole crime world out there of people out there just preying,” Farris said. “Not only on the children, but the elderly and everyone that’s on this social media and the platform and internet. It’s a whole different world.”

Farris said the communication aspect of the internet and social media is needed, and often used for good. He said this two-hour session will teach people how to communicate safely and avoid the platforms and sites that put their safety and sensitive information in jeopardy. He said cyberfraud is another aspect of online safety that has become a major issue in recent years.

“A lot of folks that are older than I am really don’t understand these platforms and have no idea how these things work,” Farris said. “We’re not only wanting to educate some of the students hopefully that will be there, but certainly the parents and educators on what some of this can do and how it works.”

He said new social media platforms are coming out all the time. He said parents can bring their students to the Edge Building from 6:00-8:00pm Thursday and learn about the dangers of these harmful corners of the web.