Reminder! July 24, 25 & 26

Stone County Sheriff's Office is offering

FREE internet monitoring software

 

The Stone County Sheriff’s Office will be distributing 1250 copies of ComputerCOP Parental Internet Monitoring Software, free to parents in Stone County as part of its community outreach efforts and the ever-increasing acknowledgement of the dangers children face online.

 The software, which sells for $39.95 online, enables parents with little or no computer skills to quickly see what their children have been doing online, including what MySpace or FaceBook photos they have posted and if they have been chatting or emailing inappropriate content about themselves or others.

Most importantly, ComputerCOP will allow parents to see if their children have been solicited online.  No tax dollars were used to purchase this program. The purchase of the software was made through a discretionary account utilizing fees collected from serving civil papers.  The Sheriff plans to incorporate the software into his Internet Safety presentations given to parents and guardians in the school districts of Stone County.  

In addition to chat and images, ComputerCOP will also show parents any web sites visited that have been flagged as containing one or more of the 2,000 keywords or phrases for which the program searches.  The keywords searched for can be of a pornographic, drug-related or violent or hateful nature or could be a word or phrases a pedophile might use to solicit or groom a child online.  The data base was developed with the help of several law enforcement agencies including the F.B.I.

The Stone County Sheriff advised parents that if they find any suspicious material or if they suspect that their child may have been solicited online to call the Sheriff’s Office immediately.

ComputerCOP will be distributed on a first come basis at the following locations and times:

July 24^th, 6:00 pm – Galena High School

July 25^th, 5:30 pm – Crane High School

July 26^th, 6:00 pm – Fire Station #1, Branson West

 

ComputerCOP will be distributed first to parents of middle school and high school aged children. 

 

Richard L. Hill

Sheriff, Stone County