Internet Safety

FBI Special Agent Anne Figuerias visited with our students and our parents on September 25 to share concerns on Internet use, social networking online, and safety measures to protect our young Men of Saint Thomas (and their sisters and brothers). Special Agent Figuerias is the daughter of Dewey J. Gonsoulin, ’47, Attorney at Law.

Previous Presentations
Last year on September 18, 2006, FBI Agent William Weaver visited St. Thomas and discussed the FBI's internet safety presentation at a student assembly. Father Huber then shared his thoughts with the students to supplement the presentation.

Agent Weaver returned the following week to share the FBI's adult version of his internet safety presentation with our parents during an evening session. Father Huber then shared his STH presentation that reflected his discussion during the previous week at the student assembly.

Internet Usage Safety Tips
Pages 26-27 in the St. Thomas Parent - Student Handbook for the 2007-2008 school year discusses internet safety tips for students who develop and maintain personal websites and blogs.

The My Space website has published their own suggested safety tips.

Phi Delta Kappa International posted an article on their website regarding Confronting Electronic Bullying. Find out what electronic bullying is, how it works, and what school admininstrators, teachers, you, and your son can do about it!

In the News...
There have been interesting stories in the news regarding the hazards of posting personal information on the internet.

From the February 25, 2008 edition of The Christian Science Monitor, "Teachers Strike Back at Students' Online Pranks"
Tech-savvy teenagers are increasingly paying a heavy price – including criminal arrest – for parodying their teachers on the Internet ...

From the January 22, 2008 Frontline show, "Growing up Online"
Nearly every teen in America is on the Internet every day, socializing with friends and strangers alike, "trying on" identities, and building a virtual profile of themselves ...

From the July 3, 2006 issue of TIME magazine, "How Safe is My Space?"
Social-networking sites are all the rage with kids. Now a lawsuit accuses the most popular one of not doing enough to protect them from predators.

From the June 11, 2006 issue of The New York Times, "For Some, Online Persona Undermines a Résumé"
"The term they've used over and over is red flags," Ms. Steinfeld said. "Is there
something about their lifestyle that we might find questionable or that we might find goes against the core values of our corporation?"

From the March 8, 2006 issue of USA TODAY, Alarms Sound Over Athletes' Facebook Time
"Facebook.com is a website most college students know and many of their elders don't. Athletics administrators are just getting to know it — and many don't like what they see."

On Television...
Saturday Night Live and The Oprah Winfrey Show have both used their forum to broadcast the dangers of predators lurking around the web.

Oprah Winfrey highlighted the threat of sexual predators on the web in her February 2002 show.

The documents above are in the Adobe ® Acrobat (PDF) format. If you do not yet have the Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer, you should download a copy of it first because it is used to view and print the documents.