CINCINNATI (WXIX) – A tech company is working to help protect kids from online predators.
Cellphones, tablets, gaming consoles, laptops, and personal computers – kids have more access than ever before to technology.
While the ability to connect with people across the world can be useful, it can also be dangerous.
Online predators are finding new ways to reach kids every week and it is becoming more difficult to guarantee children’s online safety.
“There are individuals out there that have a sexual attraction to children,” says detective Brandi Carter. “That’s what they want is those images. Once that’s out there on the internet, we cannot get that back.”
Online predators are a very real problem happening every single day and children are their targets.
“I think what we’re seeing with teenagers and maybe even younger [ages], there’s a lot of sextortion cases where juveniles are being, you know, enticed to send images of themselves and then they’re getting threatened or blackmailed, if you will,” detective Carter explains. “‘Hey, if you don’t send me this amount of money or this gift card, we’re going to release your images.’”
Detective Carter says she has seen victims as young as 10 years old.
The detective says adults are reaching out to kids on social media, messaging apps, or even through video games that allow for two-way communication.
“It never ceases to, honestly, gut me to realize how many children are being impacted,” Tatania Jordan says.
Jordan works for BARK, which is a company that has developed Artificial Intelligence (AI) to monitor your child’s phone for alarming content and communication.
“We do that through an app, and we also offer a safer smartphone for kids to get closer to the source of the problem,” Jordan explains.
Jordan says BARK started rolling out their AI in 2015 and it is only growing and learning more each year.
“Let’s say a child met a predator on Roblox, and that predator has said, ‘Hey, let’s take this conversation off Roblox and start texting with each other,’” Jordan hypothesizes. “BARK would detect that conversation and let parents know, ‘Hey, we believe this is a predation situation.’”
BARK alerts adult users via their app and emails and if the situation is serious enough, a phone call from their team. This all comes from messaging.
“It’s not just keywords like sex, drugs, that sort of thing,” Jordan explains. “It really is very nuanced and very tailored to the way children speak and the way adults speak when they’re trying to groom children.”
In a world where emojis have become their own language, BARK says their AI knows exactly what all those eggplants represent.
“The more information you feed it, the smarter and better it gets and so as our company has grown, it’s only becoming better, faster, incredibly accurate,” Jordan says.
While BARK does offer free resources, there is a cost for their services.
FOX19 NOW tech expert Dave Hatter says there are some free options for parents.
“I think the best place to start for most people, other than having a conversation with your kids, is to start with the parental controls through your cellular carrier and/or your internet service provider,” Hatter recommends.
Both should offer free services that you can use to protect your kids from harm, Hatter says, but you too are going to have to brush up on what apps your kids have and how much they’re able to communicate with others, especially when it comes to gaming.
“There’s nothing that would stop a 45-year-old dude from going online and pretending to be a 14-year-old girl in some online game or discord server where people are talking about games or whatever,” Hatter explains.
Detective Carter concurs, saying parents need to be aware of what apps their kids are accessing.
“You do almost need to be smarter than your kids and what applications they’re using and what they’re having access to,” Carter says.
BARK says they will regularly delete the data that’s collected, and you can request to have it wiped at any point.
The tech company also partners with local and federal resources that deal with crimes against children.
They also say if you have their phone, kids can’t delete the software. If you’re using their app on another device and your child tries to delete it, BARK will alert you to the app being deactivated.
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