Abington [Safely] Online

Twenty years ago, the terms “identity theft,” “Twitter,” “cyber-bullying” and “phishing” would have all sounded like science fiction. Those terms have now entered our lexicon, and need to be addressed.

Abington Commissioner Steven Kline, in conjunction with the Abington Police Department and the Montgomery County District Attorney’ Office, will hold an Internet safety forum tonight at the township building.

The idea stemmed from a conversation Kline had with his neighbor, Montco DA Risa Vetri Ferman.

(Kline said jokingly that Ferman had some advice for him about his Facebook page.)

The forum is geared toward parents, but it will also touch on Internet-related economic crime like identity theft, credit card fraud and phishing.

“Detectives will be talking about things like cyber-bullying, nudity being transferred online—kids pressuring kids to send pictures of themselves naked—and how to deal with with online gaming,” Kline said. “The second part of the program will deal with economic crimes—white-collar crimes, scams, credit card fraud and phishing.”

Kline said he has children who play online games, and said parents should always know what their children are looking at online.

“That kind of awareness is something you want to teach,” he said. “You don’t want to let your kids go online blindly.”

And he added that Internet safety is especially important for older children, some of whom have access to cars. Kline said many of his friends have teenage children.

“I became aware of this because my friends have teenage kids—they’re 13, 14—and at the age where they want iPods, iPhones and email addresses,” he said. “People aren’t always who they say they are because there’s not always a face connected to the person.”

Kline said that the DA’s office has held similar programs in the schools; he said he wanted to team up with the agency and the police department to hold a township-wide session.

“I’m going to speak, I’ve done some of my own research, and I have a friend who does [Internet safety] awareness work, but I’ll kind of leave it to the experts,” Kline said.

The Internet safety forum is open to the public and runs from 7 to 9 p.m. tonight at the township building.