Digital Dangers: What Families Need to Know with Ms. Angie Kotula, Dr. Lou Nagy and School Resource Officer Chris Miller

In this episode, we’re talking about online dangers that students can potentially face, including sextortion and cyberbullying. We’ll hear from school leaders and one of our School Resource Officers about how these issues impact students, ways to stay safe, the importance of understanding your digital footprint, and what steps to take if you or someone you know is targeted.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW

• Sextortion, cyberbullying and the misuse of AI-generated images
•  Legal consequences of sextortion and cyberbullying
• Steps students, parents and educators can take to prevent sextortion and how to respond if it happens
• Ways students can protect themselves from online scams, predators or sextortion 
• Reporting tools 
  • Sprigeo
  • Takeitdown
  • National Center for Missing & Exploited Children 

Overview

SPECIAL GUESTS
Ryan Gloyer Middle School (RGMS) librarian Ms. Angie Kotula, tech facilitator Dr. Lou Nagy and School Resource Officer Chris Miller 

Ms. Angie Kotula is in her 18th of teaching at Seneca Valley. She has taught second grade, 7th grade English and is currently the librarian at RGMS. Ms. Kotula graduated of both Robert Morris University and Edinboro University where she received a Bachelor of Science and Master’s in Education. She holds certifications in K-6 Elementary Education, 7-9 and 7-12 English, K-12 Reading Specialist, and K-12 Library.  Additionally, she has received numerous online-safety certifications from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and has taken a graduate level course in digital citizenship.  She is a current member of the digital citizenship committee at Seneca Valley and has years of experience teaching middle school students about online safety alongside local law enforcement and building colleagues. 

Dr. Lou Nagy is currently in his 37th year at Seneca Valley.  He began his career at SV as a Biology Teacher for General Biology, Advanced Biology and AP Biology. As Seneca Valley began incorporating technology into the classroom, Dr. Nagy left teaching Biology and became one of the first technology facilitators, a role that he continues in today.  He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Molecular Biology from Westminster College and obtained his Master of Arts in Teaching as well as his doctorate with a concentration in Instructional Technology from the University of Pittsburgh. In addition to his tenure at Seneca Valley, Dr. Nagy has taught Biology at Highlands High School and Duquesne University in the department of Educational Technology and Leadership.  

Officer Chris Miller has been a Police Officer employed by the Jackson Township Police Department for the last 17 years. He attended the University of Pittsburgh and is a graduate of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Police Academy Class #63.

Transcript

FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)

00:00:02:26 - 00:00:11:28
Jeff Krakoff: Welcome to Voices, a national award-winning podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District. This is Jeff Krakoff. 

00:00:12:00 - 00:00:45:17
Jeff Krakoff: Today I've got three guests. We're going to talk about a lot of different topics about how students need to be good digital citizens, a lot of the dangers out there, a lot of the legal ramifications. So let's get started. Our three guests are, um, Ryan Gloyer Middle School librarian. Angie Kotula. We've got Doctor Louis Nagy, who is a, uh, tech facilitator at, uh, Ryan Gloyer Middle School. And we've also got School Resource Officer, Chris Miller. 

00:00:45:19 - 00:00:46:28
Jeff Krakoff: Thanks for joining us. 

00:00:47:00 - 00:00:48:08
Louis Nagy: Thanks for having us. 

00:00:48:16 - 00:01:00:26
Jeff Krakoff: So we're hearing a lot about the term sextortion. And can you kind of define that for us and tell us a little bit more about what that issue is when it comes to school students. 

00:01:01:04 - 00:02:24:26
Louis Nagy: Yeah. So so sextortion is really a form of blackmail where the blackmailer or the criminal in this case threatens to release intimate or sexual images and videos of a person to extort money, to get money, uh, possibly other images and explicit content. And what they do is they will, um, sort of become friends online with the young people, and they will as the relationship progresses, they will ask for intimate photos and students will share those intimate photos. And then it turns into a extortion situation where these individuals are demanding money, uh, gift cards, they could be demanding additional pictures, and they start to get more aggressive and mean they don't back off. And so the, the students kind of feel that they're in a hopeless situation. But what we tell our students, particularly in our digital citizenship class, is they are not at fault here. They are the victims. And so they are not going to face any sort of legal charges. It's the individuals that are doing the sextortion that are going to be in trouble. 

00:02:24:28 - 00:02:37:06
Jeff Krakoff: And I imagine students need to watch out for it could be a stranger, right? It could be somebody much older posing as a teenager, for example. Or it could be people they actually know. Correct? 

00:02:37:09 - 00:03:40:14
Louis Nagy: Exactly. All three situations occur, unfortunately. And another thing that is occurring is, um, the use of generative AI or artificial intelligence, in which individuals are creating what are called deepfakes, pictures of the students and using those for sextortion purposes. And with the um, AI, what they can do is take a very innocuous picture that's not, you know, something that is inappropriate and turn it into something that is inappropriate and then use that to extort the individuals. Also, if they have any access to the students voice, you know, through a video or something like that, they can use the AI to create, um, voice overs, which then lead credence to, you know, um, if they're contacting their parents or the extorter can contact the parents and it sounds like the kid is in trouble. 

00:03:40:16 - 00:03:55:01
Jeff Krakoff: Sure. Okay. Angie. So what steps can students and parents and teachers and other staff members take to prevent sextortion from happening, or if they can't prevent it? What's the best way to respond? 

00:03:55:08 - 00:05:07:03
Angie Kotula: Uh, so, you know, one of the first things we tell the kids is, you know, most importantly, like, don't send pictures, you know? Um, but, uh, ways they can protect themselves is, you know, don't allow strangers to follow you on social media. Um, and also set your accounts to private. Um, once you have your account set to public, anybody can access. You know, like Doctor Nagy said, completely innocent photos. And use those, like, in an AI generative way. Um, but, you know, don't allow these strangers to follow you on your accounts. And setting your accounts to private are two really good ways to protect yourself in a situation like this. Right. And, you know, we tell the kids, listen, if you find yourself in one of these situations or you have a friend like that, get help immediately. Don't send them money. Don't send them more photos. You know, it doesn't matter how embarrassing the situation is. You know, your parents and guardians love you more than life itself. You know we care about you very much here and we have the resources to help. But the first step you need to do is to protect yourself by, you know, not allowing these strangers to follow you. 

00:05:07:08 - 00:06:00:08
Jeff Krakoff: Yeah. And get back to what Doctor Nagy said. You are not the person that did wrong. You're a victim in this case. You know, it could be embarrassing. Exactly. But again, it's important to get the the real perpetrators, um, to take responsibility for these things. And I know AI is getting better and better, right? It could be nothing that a student did wrong. It's just somebody has access to photos or audio files or video files. So let's talk about the legal part. As an SRO. Officer Miller, I know it it varies state by state with laws. But how does PA law address whether it's sextortion, whether it's cyberbullying or or just misusing AI images and audio and video like we've been discussing. What's the legal aspect of all this? 

00:06:00:10 - 00:06:50:26
Officer Miller: Well, specifically last, last year, recent updates to Pennsylvania law to include artificially generated images into the categories of things that can get you in legal hot water. Um, they already have numerous laws on the book to address the cyberbullying, whether it be cyber harassment of child and the sextortion, which is a multitude of crimes in itself. It's not just one specific crime. You have multiple crimes when you're a victim of that, whether it be unlawful, you know, what's called criminal, criminal use of a communication facility, like a computer, uh, theft, um, you know, child sexual abuse, material law violations. That's images being sent around. Those are all can be part of sextortion. So you're not there's not a specific crime for sextortion. It's a multitude of crimes, if that makes sense. 

00:06:50:29 - 00:06:51:21
Jeff Krakoff: Right. 

00:06:51:23 - 00:08:33:00
Officer Miller: Um, and our purpose here Really is to teach the kids to protect themselves. To support them if they find themselves in this situation. And to tie into what um, Angie said here, is that it's really imperative that the kids don't wait to report things like this. And that's one of the things that I like to harp on, um, is to come to us and not sit in a not feel like there's no way out of these situations. A lot of kids probably do. Uh, and to come to us because we can help them navigate that obviously go to a trusted adult first, like a parent. Yeah. Um, but a lot of the times these get reported to us here at school. And so we are familiar with dealing with them and, and how to help them, walk them through those processes. Um, some of the other things, the legal consequences don't just affect, uh, adults. Children or juveniles are susceptible to these all they apply both ways. Um, if they're going to be irresponsible with social media, um, the use of dissemination of photos. Um, there's they can suffer the same penalties as adults do in certain cases. Um, you know. But our goal really here is, you know, we educate them on consequences and to be responsible and be be good kids. Um, and also to really kind of show them signs of like, what to look for, what kind of grooming, uh, techniques these predators use, um, to engage with the kids, whether it be on social media or whether it be on a gaming app like Roblox or any other kind of game on social media. Not them in particular. I'm just using them as an example. But, um, something that has, you know, the ability to communicate or direct message. So gaming platforms are another big source of this problem as well. 

00:08:33:03 - 00:09:14:13
Jeff Krakoff: Got it, got it. So, Angie, you know, whether it is sextortion, cyberbullying, why is it so important for students, you know, not just to think about today but their whole future, right? I know employers look at social media and they try to find out. So what are these people doing when they're applying for colleges, applying for jobs down the road, you know? What kinds of interests do they have? What kind of activities do they have? But tell me a little bit about why it's so important for students still in school to think about their digital footprint and all the negative impacts it could have on them. And and what are some of those impacts? 

00:09:14:22 - 00:10:35:19
Angie Kotula: Um, yeah. So we have a whole entire lesson that we geared toward the digital footprint for our students. Um, we try to explain to the students, it's basically like you're creating a reference for yourself when you go online, you know, back in the day when, you know, most of us, their parents were kids, you know, we would apply for jobs and they would ask us to give a reference, you know, and we would give them, you know, contacts and, you know, they would call and, you know, find out how who we are as people nowadays, you know, with the internet. It basically is recording everything that we're doing, everything that we're posting, everything that we're saying. And, you know, those things can be pulled back up. And, you know, maybe somebody, maybe a child says something like in seventh grade, they realize that they shouldn't have said that, or maybe they made that mistake. And but, you know, when they're 11th grade applying for a scholarship, that information can get pulled back up. And, you know, the internet is not forgiving. So we kind of talk to them about it's important to have a digital footprint. You can have a good digital footprint, but you have to be very careful of how you're using that technology because it can affect scholarships. It can affect your job even after you've been employed. They can still, you know, monitor that footprint. Um, and so we have those discussions with the kids and talk to them about how important that is, right. 

00:10:35:21 - 00:10:54:22
Jeff Krakoff: And maybe even longer term, how many famous people. It seems to be constant. And every year they're brought to task for something they said when they were a teenager. And they might be 30 or 40 years old now. So you're right. The internet does not forget, is not forgive. So there could be even longer term effects. Right. 

00:10:54:24 - 00:11:14:12
Angie Kotula: Yeah. I mean, we use examples. A lot of like, college athletes, you know, that get these scholarships and then, um, you know, they may have done something on the computer or the internet or social media and then those those scholarships have been revoked because of that. And so we try to make it bring those examples to the kids so they can see those real consequences. 

00:11:14:14 - 00:11:40:23
Jeff Krakoff: Yeah. So we've talked about kind of the dark side of technology quite a bit. We talked about maybe, you know, don't get involved with strangers through communications in other ways. But Doctor Nagy, you know, if we had to list just some practical steps that students can take, their parents need to be aware of just to protect themselves from all these things happening out there. What what can they do? 

00:11:40:26 - 00:13:56:02
Louis Nagy: Well, one of the first things they can do in the case of emails to protect their computers, if they get an email from somebody that they don't know and it has like a PDF form. Don't open it because PDF forms are notorious for having viruses and malware, so if you don't know who the person is, delete it. If they need it to get in touch with you, they'll get in touch with you another way. Another thing is, if anybody requests money, don't send credit card information. Don't you know for them cryptocurrency if they have that which is surprising that some of our kids do that probably. And you know, credit cards don't send that information. With the social media, one of the big things that we try to emphasize to our students is when make your accounts private, okay? And do not accept friends or follow requests from people you do not know in real life, because the odds are those individuals are scammers and fake people. Another thing that we want them to be aware of is when they post anything on their social media account to be aware of what's in the background of them. You know, we have young people that will post pictures of them in front of their house, and it has the address right there. They don't realize that the address is there. And so individuals can now know where this person lives. Or in our case, you know, students post pictures of them wearing Seneca Valley gear. So they now know that they go to Seneca Valley. You need to be aware of, you know, what you are posting and what's in the background, so to speak, of the pictures. Another thing that I don't think parents really realize is that on their social media accounts, you know, many of them have it open to the general public, and they're posting pictures of their kids in innocuous, you know, activities, picnics, family things going on. And this is another place that predators, unfortunately, can go and get information about those particular students and kids. 

00:13:56:24 - 00:14:13:03
Jeff Krakoff: All really important tips. Thank you so much for that. So if there is an incident, something happens. Uh, Angie, why don't you take this one? But what are the logistics of reporting something? What are the tools available? Who do they go to? 

00:14:13:06 - 00:15:55:09
Angie Kotula: Well, first of all, we really stress for them to go to their parents or guardians. You know, first and foremost, they're trusted adults, you know, and we talk about who a trusted it all is, whether you know, a parent guardian, a teacher, the school SROs, um, our guidance counselors here at school, um, somebody that they trust. Um, and then we also have a reporting tool here at Seneca Valley. It's called Sprigeo. Um, and that is monitored, um, even at nighttime and on the weekends and during the summer and holiday breaks. And kids can go in there and report things anonymously or, you know, they can actually attach their name to that if they want as well. But that gets sent right to administration. And and then that also they can also reach out like to the school resource officers if they receive a yo, you know, report. And so we kind of talk about all of that. Like we want to talk about who is a good person to go to. You know, obviously go to someone at home. Uh, but come here to us at school if you need us to, and we'll help you. And and Officer Miller is a really good resource, too. Um, kids will come to him, and then he'll call home right away. And he has a good way of, you know, sharing with parents things that might have happened and explain it, that their kids have been victimized through something like this. And so we have a lot of good ways to report also on a national level. Um, and I'll let you know, uh, Doctor Nagy or Officer Miller explain this in more detail. But even the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a they have a lot of good resources that you can use as well. Um, but I think it's important to go one to your, you know, parents guardian, trusted adult and two, local law enforcement. I think that's really important as well. 

00:15:55:26 - 00:16:03:20
Jeff Krakoff: Okay, so on the website sprig, which is Sprigeo, where would they find that on the website. 

00:16:03:26 - 00:16:38:09
Angie Kotula: That if they go to our, um, home page at Ryan Gloyer and they scroll down, there's a link for Sprigeo, and most of the kids know how to access that. We actually, um, when we teach these lessons, their classroom teacher comes with them and we will have that classroom teacher show the kids how to access that information in class, typically like the next day or sometime within that week. But most of the kids come to us knowing, you know, where that information is located, uh, because I believe they use that also down in the elementary buildings as well. 

00:16:38:28 - 00:17:09:17
Jeff Krakoff: Okay. So we've mentioned a lot once somebody becomes a victim question for any of you. What if it's sort of just something doesn't feel right? The student isn't a victim yet, but somebody's asking for photos. They're asking for some private information. Is, you know. Do they go to their parents or again? Is that something they could approach Officer Miller or their principal just to say, hey, this is happening. It doesn't feel right. I'm worried about it. What should I do? 

00:17:10:05 - 00:18:03:28
Officer Miller: Throughout the course is the digital citizenship classes that we do. We periodically have kids come to us with that exact question. Concern about a friend. Um, there's nothing wrong with them coming to us in class. If they're concerned and we address it pretty quickly. Um, a lot of the times we've had cases where, um, it stops something from becoming a bigger problem. Um, or it's been someone that's been kind of, I would say, a victim for an extended period of time. And someone was concerned like, this has been going on for a while, and I'm worried about my friend. Um, we can address it here in the school, um, rather quickly. Uh, you know, even on Springhill, they could report something like that. It would get to us. Okay. You know, all the administrators have access to that. And if it's something where students in danger, um, potentially, um, that they would contact law enforcement, um, immediately, even that night, once they received the Sprigeo. 

00:18:04:01 - 00:18:06:24
Jeff Krakoff: Oh, right. So sooner the better, right? 

00:18:10:00 - 00:18:22:03
Angie Kotula:  I think, like anything, that's a red flag.  You know, go to your parents, like, you know, go to your trusted adult, even if it hasn't turned into, like, maybe a sextortion situation, but it makes you feel uncomfortable. You need to go to that trusted adult. 

00:18:22:05 - 00:18:39:13
Louis Nagy: Yeah. I think we emphasize, you know, trust your intuition. And if it doesn't feel right, it's probably not right. So go to your trusted adult and and they will help you through the situation. Just don't wait and let this become something more than what it needs to be. 

00:18:39:15 - 00:19:05:20
Jeff Krakoff: Okay? I want to get back to Angie. You mentioned the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. I know there's the cyber tip line. Yeah, take it down. These are more national resources, but not. Doctor Nagy, can you kind of explain what those resources are and why would you use those? You know, more from a national level than, you know, we had talked about. Go to your parents, go to your the police officer in school. 

00:19:05:29 - 00:21:21:25
Louis Nagy: Right. So the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has created two fantastic tools. The first is cyber tip line and the web address is cyber tip line. All one word.org. And that is used for reporting suspected child sexual abuse exploitation. And then what the National Center does is it takes that information and shares it with law enforcement agencies, the FBI, um, local police officers, uh, state police officers as well. The other tool that they have is take it down and that web address is takeitdown all one word .ncmec.org And this is a tool for individuals who have had inappropriate pictures uploaded and shared on the web. And they're under the age of 18. Okay. So individuals over the age of 18. Takeitdown doesn't work. But for under the age of 18, what will happen is there's a series of questions that the student can answer. The child can answer, the parents can answer, um, and it puts what is called a hash mark on the photo. And they share it with the social media companies. So the social media companies then scan all these different images. And when they encounter an image with that hash mark, they remove it, they pull it down. And so this is a we used to say to kids that, you know, once an inappropriate image is out there on the World Wide Web, it's out there. It can't be brought back down. It can be brought down using takeitdown, which is a wonderful, wonderful tool. However, it still exists on individuals devices and it can't take it off of individual devices. So sometimes those pictures unfortunately reappear, and the person has to relive the trauma of having their inappropriate pictures shared. But takeitdown as a fantastic tool. It works quite well. 

00:21:21:29 - 00:21:40:15
Jeff Krakoff: Okay, well this is such an important and fascinating topic to discuss, you know. Thank you all three of you, for all this good information that really students and parents need to know before I let you go, is there anything else that that we need to mention that listeners, uh, would find interesting? 

00:21:40:17 - 00:22:10:13
Officer Miller: I would just like to add that we stressed that we're a team here. All the kids, the parents in us, and we try to reinforce what they're being taught at home. And it's important for kids. We tell them to let their parents know, and for parents to be involved in what social media they're using, how to use the device, who they're talking to. So it's really, really important that kids share that with them and let them know what they're using. And parents are kind of actively watching what they're using a lot of this stuff. The majority of it will be prevented. 

00:22:11:01 - 00:22:34:24
Angie Kotula: I also think it's important for parents to know, you know, this stuff is like the technology is always changing, you know, so rapidly. So it's important to stay on top of those like current issues so they can protect themselves and their reputation and their identity. And so just to make sure that they stay on top of those changes that are happening so rapidly in the tech world. 

00:22:35:28 - 00:23:15:00
Louis Nagy: The one thing that I want to add is that, uh, students are in the gaming world, online gaming world, and they think that it's a very safe environment. But this is an environment in which a lot of predators live, so to speak. And children, students, young people need to be aware of this. And if anybody asks you to go and have conversations on a different platform, that is a major red flag, and you definitely do not want to go and message or communicate with that person on a different platform other than the gaming platform that you're playing on. 

00:23:15:02 - 00:23:47:22
Angie Kotula: And just to add to what Doctor Nagy said, I think one last thing is on some of these gaming platforms and, you know, on some social media, they will sometimes ask kids to share their passwords or, you know, to kind of get them further in games and things like that. And we stress to the kids it's important to keep your passwords private because, you know, their parent's banking account information and credit card information is sometimes linked to their gaming platforms. And so we tell the kids, do not and under any circumstances ever give your password out to anyone for any reason. 

00:23:49:00 - 00:24:32:10
Jeff Krakoff: Well, through this whole discussion, I try to put myself in the shoes of a of a youth. Right. And when something like this happens, I'm sure it feels like it's the end of the world. It's embarrassing. Um, and it's a hard thing to bring up to your parents, but, you know, this is for any of any of you. But I think kids have to give their parents a little bit of slack on that. I've noticed just anecdotally, being a parent and talking to other people, a lot of times the kids come to their parent and they think the response is going to be anger, or they're going to make them feel guilty, and they're often surprised that the parents are just supportive. 

00:24:32:12 - 00:24:42:11
Jeff Krakoff: They're there to help them through that situation. Is there anything you could add just in your experiences? Do you feel like that is something that happens more often than not. 

00:24:42:18 - 00:25:12:06
Angie Kotula: Um, well, I'll give that question to Officer Miller, but I will say that we do stress to the kids. Like I said earlier. Their parents love them more than life itself, and they will do anything to protect them. And we try to make sure that they understand that. And we say, it doesn't matter how embarrassing it is. It doesn't matter what you've done. They love you so much and we care about you very much here. Um, and so we do stress that message to them. But I'll let Officer Miller kind of answer that for you, because I know he's kind of been in situations like that before. 

00:25:12:08 - 00:25:53:06
Officer Miller: Out of the parents that I've talked to regarding these situations, the kids find themselves in, all of them have been understanding. All of them have wanted to help their help their child get through it. Um, and were some were disappointed that they didn't come to them first, I can tell you that the parents that that the kids when the incidents are reported us in school. Um, it's hard on them. Some of the parents when they're not being told by their kids themselves. So I can tell. Kids, we urge them to go to their parents first. And I've not I've not had a single parent, um, you know, being other obviously being upset but not being supportive, you know, of the child through the process of getting this taken care of. 

00:25:53:08 - 00:26:27:20
Jeff Krakoff: All right. Well, that's a great note to end on. Again, if there is a situation you're a student sooner the better. And talk to your parents. Talk to officials at the school. Um again don't want it's not a discussion everybody wants to have, but it's such an important one. So thank you so much. Today we have spoken with Angie Kotula, who's librarian at Ryan Gloyer Middle School Doctor Louis Nagy, um, tech facilitator at Ryan Gloyer as well, and School Resource Officer Chris Miller. 

00:26:27:22 - 00:26:30:20
Jeff Krakoff: Thanks so much for all this very important information. 

00:26:31:02 - 00:26:32:03
Angie Kotula: Thank you. Thank you. 

00:26:32:21 - 00:26:33:24
Jeff Krakoff: All right. Take care.