R.I. middle school principal discusses Internet security issues at Forensic Seminar

By: Chris Curtis

Posted: 3/11/08

03/11/08 - Dr. Lawrence Filippelli presented a lecture Friday about the topic of Internet security from his unique point of view as a middle school principal.

The lecture, held in Pastore Hall as part of the Forensic Science Seminar Series, focused on Internet predators, the dangers posed by social networking Web sites, and the recent phenomenon of cyber-bullying.

It is the new modes of communication embraced in recent years, such as instant messaging and video dialogue that are responsible for the new forms of victimization, Filippelli said.

"This is the way that kids are choosing to communicate with each other and it has many different facets of problem," Filippelli said. "What kids don't realize is that [sex offenders] are more often than not the other people on the other ends of the IMs."

Filippelli is principal of Scituate Middle School in Rhode Island as well as supervisor of the Crisis Response Team for Scituate schools and an adjunct professor and lecturer at Johnson & Wales University.

Filippelli's first brush with Internet security happened at his school after a student was sent to his office.

The student's cell phone had rung in class and after questioning, told Filippelli the caller was an unknown man who had been calling her regularly. He later discovered that the girl had posted detailed personal information online, which helped the stranger locate her.

Filippelli said sites like MySpace.com and Facebook.com are largely responsible for the increase in cyber-stalking. Many younger users are posting personal information online, partly because they are not mature enough to recognize the possible consequences.

"From that age of about 12 to 21-years-old, the frontal lobe of their brain is not developed enough to make those long-term decisions," Filippelli said.

Filippelli also attributed this behavior to technology addiction.

"We see the kids exhibit almost the exact same symptoms as when they're addicted to a drug when they're addicted to technology," said Filippelli.

In addition to cyber-stalking, Filippelli said he has seen a drastic increase in "cyber-bullying," the online victimization of young people by their peers.

A typical case of this includes harassment via instant messaging and creating what Filippelli referred to as "hatespaces," pages on social networking sites purporting to belong to the victim of the bullying, which might include doctored photos of the victim.

Based on his experiences, Filippelli estimated that about 60 percent of teenagers experience a form of cyber bullying.

In his research, Filippelli said he has found that girls are more likely to be involved in cyber-bullying and to post inappropriate content online.

"The girls are far outweighing the boys with the objectionable photos, with objectionable comments, etc. on MySpace," Filippelli said. "Very rarely will you find a 15-year-old boy in front of a mirror with a Speedo taking a picture of himself and posting it on his MySpace, whereas we find this constantly with the girls."

The posting of objectionable content can also have negative consequences for college students, Filippelli said. Inappropriate postings on social networking sites can come back to haunt students when they apply for jobs after graduation, he said.

"I guarantee you there is someone out there right-clicking, copying, pasting and keeping in a digital index a record of all the stupid things that everybody does in college," Filippelli said.

Bringing online predators to justice can pose unique challenges for law enforcement, Filippelli said.

Records of instant messaging conversations are stored on the service's host server for up to 72 hours and IP address logs can be accessed for up to 90 days.

Many computer and online records cannot be retrieved once deleted, making it "very important that time is of the essence, that law enforcement move quickly, move quietly," he said.