ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – With cyber crimes like sextortion on the rise–even in places like the Upper Peninsula–law enforcement is working to raise awareness about online safety.
Escanaba Area Public Schools students and their families have the opportunity to learn how they can use the internet safely.
On Thursday, May 11, an event will be hosted by the Michigan State Police (MSP) Cyber Section — Computer Crimes Unit and Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. In cooperation with the Escanaba Public Safety School Resource Officer and school administration, the MSP unit will show a film about the growing dangers of sextortion.
Following the film, MSP Computer Crimes Detective Trooper Collin Hinman will give a presentation on ways students can protect themselves online.
“It’s a lot easier online for predators and people to be deceptive, to trick students into becoming friends with them and then turning around a conversation or an incident or shared information and exploiting our students,” said Hinman.
Law enforcement officials say there are more opportunities than ever for students to fall victim to these sorts of crimes.
“Kids have cell phones these days and they’re on different social media platforms,” said School Resource Officer Dustin Stempki. “They just need to understand the importance of who they’re talking to on the other end and information and pictures and stuff that they release.”
Stempki says sextortion is something that could happen to anyone. The issue hit close to home for Escanaba High School a few years ago, when one of its own students became a target.
“We had a young lady who was going to be sex trafficked,” said Jason Micheau, assistant principal of Escanaba Jr/Sr High School. “One of our filters on the email search popped something up. The person was able to send money from a person down in Texas, and that person hopped a couple of connecting flights and ended up down in Houston. And if not for the knowledge of one of our Escanaba detectives who had worked down there, this person would’ve been lost.”
Officers and school administrators hope students and community members walk away from the presentation with new tools and insights to keep themselves as safe as possible.
“On top of that, just speaking up when something does happen,” Hinman said. “Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes our students get in a conversation that they realize is probably not the right thing to do, and we want them to be comfortable with coming to law enforcement and their parents and teachers here, because we want to support them.”
Thursday’s film viewing and presentation are free and open to the public. The film will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the Escanaba High School auditorium, followed by Detective Trooper Hinman’s presentation at 7:30 p.m.
For more information, click here.
