KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If your child was sending or receiving nude photographs online, would you know?
Lenexa police plan to host a free workshop on Tuesday, Jan. 25 to raise awareness of online crimes involving children - crimes that can sometimes be hard for parents to spot.
"They need to know what apps are their kids using because some of those they’re using to send nudes through they have a secret vault to put pictures to put videos and things like that," Lenexa Police Department crime analyst Lindsey Calvillo said. "If parents don’t know that, they might be checking phones and seeing that your child has an app, but you’re not seeing those things because they are in a hidden vault."
Lenexa Police Department public information officer Danny Chavez says his department sees dangers posed minors online beyond sending and receiving nude photos.
"It’s more common than we would like to see, especially those young people who are, sad to say, but being groomed by older predators," Chavez said. "There’s inappropriate conversations and inappropriate pictures being shared."
Police warn that's why it's important to not only know what apps your child is using, but to also talk openly with them about this topic.
Crime analysts like Calvillo say these are conversations that need to start as early as elementary school.
"A lot of parents don’t know that these are issues that their kids are facing," Calvillo said. "You might not know that there are third and fourth graders in your kids' school that are dealing with some of these issues. You have talk to your kid about them."
Calvillo says these conversations are helpful so kids will know what to do if they encounter inappropriate material online, or someone tries to prompt them to send nude photos.
The goal is to help prevent these crimes from happening and causing your child long-term damage.
"We’ve had some victims who’ve reported they sent the picture to a friend or a boyfriend a girlfriend and then it gets sent out to the whole school and then later on they suffer from suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression and things like that and some of them have attempted to take their own life," she said.
Tomorrow's workshop runs from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Lenexa Baptist Church, 15320 W. 87th St., Lenexa. Organizers are hopeful the large space will allow attendees to social distance while still being able to attend.
It's open to anyone, not just Lenexa or Johnson County residents. However, while kids are welcome, police suggest no children under 12 due to the sensitive nature of the topic.
Those interested can register on the city's website or Facebook page.
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