Here’s how to add protection from child predators to your Christmas shopping list

With Christmas around the corner, parents are buying cellphones, picking up video game consoles and buying computers for their children.

What they may not be considering is how the devices may allow predators to find their kids.

Richland police and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force are educating parents about the dangers of such technology at their latest presentation in the Screenshot Series. The presentation starts at 7 p.m. Thursday at the WSU Tri-Cities East Auditorium.

Thursday’s talk will provide parents with information about popular apps, how they are used and what warning signs to look for.

No device with an internet connection is immune from being used as a tool for predators to reach children, said Cerise Peck, Richland police’s crime prevention specialist.

Even e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle have applications that allow communication.

“There are apps that may be intended for picture sharing, like Instagram, that have a chat feature,” Peck said.

Mobile games like Roblox, which is billed as the “world’s largest social platform for play” in its app store description, can connect children and teens with predators.

While parents should be aware what their children are doing, Peck said they shouldn’t freak out and toss all their devices.

“It’s just like drugs,” Peck said. “You need to sit down and have a conversation with them.”

Since starting the series in July, agencies and schools across the Mid-Columbia and as far away as Wapato have played host to the presentations.

While planned before, the series took on a new importance after the arrest of 26 men for allegedly propositioning minors.

“I feel like we’re making a difference,” she said.

This story was originally published November 27, 2017 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Here’s how to add protection from child predators to your Christmas shopping list."