MADISON — A Maine State Police detective will meet with Madison students and parents this week to discuss the dangers young people can face as they spend an increasing amount of time online.

Detective Joe Royle will hold two presentations in Madison. The presentation Tuesday will be aimed at parents and will be held at 6 p.m. at Madison Junior High. He will then meet Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. at the school with junior high and high school students.

A news release from Shannon Moss, spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety, said Royle will have a “candid conversation” with students about online threats and will gives parents tips about how to approach these issues with their children.

The presentations were requested by the school district, Superintendent Bonnie Levesque said. She said student behavior online and issues like cyberbullying are an ongoing problem for any school. They first requested that Royle give a presentation to the district’s administrative team, Levesque said, but they were so impressed with it that they wanted to share the information with others.

“To be honest, it’s more than just bullying. It’s kids being naïve and someone connecting with them online thinking they are a friend and it’s not,” Levesque said. “It was eye-opening … to see all that was going on. So eye-opening, we thought it would be good to share with parents, too.”

Online threats are a growing problem, especially during the pandemic as people spend more time online for school and work, said Lori Sussman, assistant professor of technology and cybersecurity at the University of Southern Maine.

“More kids are online, everyone is working more online, as we have this presence online we are seeing these cyber criminals using more of those attacks,” Sussman said.

The issues can range from cyberbullying and the sharing of private messages and photos without permission to phishing and extortion. And these aren’t rare problems. In 2018, the Pew Research Center found that 59% of teenagers have experienced some form of cyberbullying.

Sussman said that parents should set parameters for kids about where they go online, but also need to teach them good online habits.

“They have to be taught effective security habits,” Sussman said. “Just like you have to pick up your toys, you have to be able to teach them about what is proper to put on social media and what’s not.”

Things like understanding that photos have location data embedded, so that must be removed before posting on social media. Or not sharing the names of pets and family members online, because that can be used to crack passwords. And the most important thing, Sussman said, is understanding that once something is on the internet, it is very difficult to take it down.

Levesque said that she hopes the events this week will help parents and students better understand the variety of dangers online.

“The parents will be more cognizant when their kids are online and what they’re involved in, and students will be more cautious when they are online,” Levesque said.

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