Expert: Wallowa County isn't immune from cybercrime, abuse

In introducing a nationwide expert on cybercrime against children on Tuesday, March 7, Decker emphasized that parents and other responsible adults need to know how to talk to kids.

Enterprise Police Chief Kevin McQuead also was there to introduce Rich Wistocki, an Illinois police detective with 30 years of service.

“It used to be Enterprise kids didn’t talk to Joseph kids who didn’t talk to Wallowa kids,” McQuead said. “Now, you give them a cellphone and not only are they talking, but it opens them up to Indonesia, China, wherever.”

Wistocki, who until his retirement worked with the Naperville Police Department, 30 miles west of Chicago, was involved with the High Technology Crimes Unit, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the U.S. Secret Service Chicago Electronic Crimes Task Force and has authored “The Illinois Sexting, Cyber Bullying and Swatting Laws.” He served as a SWAT sniper for 22 years. He also has presented at TEDx talks — the Technology, Entertainment and Design presentations that focus on a specific local geographic area.

About 65 people attended Wistocki’s presentation at Enterprise High School. Another 35 attended online, school officials said. Earlier on Tuesday, he met with students at the school. He met with students and community members in Joseph and Wallowa on Wednesday and Thursday.

Wistocki was in Wallowa County to address sexploitation and other forms of cybercrime that children are vulnerable to these days.

Incidents not reported

Wallowa County Sheriff Joel Fish said Wednesday, March 8 that his department hasn’t received any complaints of sexual cybercrimes this school year and he doesn’t recall the last such incident that was reported.

“I think with him giving a talk, we may have some come forward,” Fish said of Wistocki.

McQuead said he is aware of several such incidents, but they don’t all get reported.

“It comes with a lot of embarrassment,” he said. “Most people don’t want to air that.”

The sheriff and the chief agreed that cellphones are nearly as common as books and pencils in schools these days.

“Almost every kid in every school has a cellphone, all the way down to first grade,” Fish said. “I’ve seen little ones with cellphones. That’s why it’s so dangerous.”

McQuead recommended smartphones with limited capabilities as more appropriate for younger children.

Parenting

Wistocki started his presentation by telling adults in the audience what he had learned earlier in the day from students at Enterprise School.

“Your kids ratted you out,” he said, referring to the fact that the kids he’d talked to said their parents threatened to take away their cellphones.

Wistocki said parents often hear from their kids, “You don’t trust me.”

But it’s not that, he said.

“No, I don’t trust the predators,” he said.

He emphasized that parents need to be mentors, not equals to their kids.

“Don’t try to be a cool parent; be a mentor,” he said.

One of the best ways to do that, he said, is for mothers and fathers to be partners in their parenting. Agreeing to let a kid get away with something “If you don’t tell Mom” is teaching them it’s OK to lie and to deceive.

He also urged parents against telling “war stories” — what they did at their kids’ age — because that makes those activities seem acceptable.

Wistocki said he never allowed his two now-grown sons to attend sleepovers since he couldn’t be sure of what would be allowed at another home.

“If they want to have one, they can come to our house,” he said.

But if they do, the kids turn in their phones when they arrive. If they need to make a call, they can use his phone.

“I’m not going to have kids victimized at my house,” he said.

Speaking directly to mothers in the audience, he told them to use their maternal instincts when they suspect their child is having a problem that Dad may brush off.

“That comes from God,” he said of the instinct.

Apps and crimes

Wistocki explained the dangers of many of the apps available for cellphones. Some of the most common are Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.

Wistocki showed a slide of an email a mother had written telling how her 12-year-old daughter had a private video in her TikTok app.

“In the video, she is wearing a sports bra and she lifts it up and you can see her breast,” the mother said, displaying her shock.

Some of the apps have settings to allow a user to open audio and video communications with others; other users can view or hear things that should remain private.

He said predators often assume a fictitious online persona to lure a victim into a relationship, a practice known as “catfishing.” Such predators can convince a victim into showing nudity or even performing sexual acts in view of the device’s camera and then take a screenshot and use that shot to blackmail the victim into doing more such acts or paying money.

Wistocki said victims may find it hard to believe they’ve been victimized and continue to believe in the predator’s fictitious persona. He said he’s had to deprogram victims who fell in love with their predator and refused to believe what’s happened until Wistocki proves it by producing other victims. Once an original victim sees they’ve been cheated upon, they often will aid the police.

Even video games such as Discord feature applications that allow users to chat online with other players; that can lead to communications that could be dangerous, he said.

Illicit drug sales also are taking place via cellphones, Wistocki said.

“You don’t have to go to a bad neighborhood anymore,” he said. “You can order it online.”

But users often become victims partially by their own doing. Facebook and most other platforms ask users to confirm that they’re at least 13 before they can use their apps. But kids can get around that requirement by simply lying about their ages. When Wistocki asked fourth- and fifth-graders — who are generally 9-11 years old — how many had Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter, many raised their hands.

Wistocki urged parents to monitor the social-media activities of their children by regularly checking their cellphones and monitoring the software on the devices. Oftentimes, he said, children will post user profiles in which they lie about their age, sometimes rolling back their birthdates to 2000 so that they appear to be in their 20s. Wistocki urged parents to be sure that their children’s online profile includes their actual age.

“It all starts with this, right here,” he said of the user profile.

Law enforcement

Wistocki said there are certain things victims of cybercrime need to do to ensure law enforcement officers have what they need to make charges stick. He urged victims to:

• Take a screen capture of the criminal activity.

• Get the user ID of the predator.

• Do not report it to the social media network, which will simply delete the predator’s account.

• Make a detailed typed statement.

• Put all the pertinent materials on a flash drive for the police.

He said in his own efforts to battle cybercrime, he regularly teaches about 300,000 kids a year and 4,000 police officers. He had a session with local law officers Monday, planned another at the end of the week and plans another session in May.

He noted that of the 30,000 school resource officers working in schools, only about 6,000 have taken a two-week training course to earn certification in how to work in schools. That number, he said, needs to increase.

Wistocki emphasized to parents that their children’s lack of maturity is just part of their being kids and adults have to make up for it.

“I’ve got a hard truth you may not like,” he said. “All of you parents are responsible for your children.”

Fish hopes Wistocki’s talks will have a positive effect.

“Hopefully it’ll open their eyes,” Fish said.