Parents bone up on Net safety

Nearly every hand went up when a group of students at Roberson High were asked if they had ever accessed a social networking site. When that same question was posed to parents and educators, less than half could say the same.

The divide that exists between parents and their children on the Internet is part of the problem when it comes to protecting children on the Web, said officials at an Internet safety symposium Saturday at the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.

“I didn’t have computer class in high school,” said Alan Flora, a criminal specialist with the State Bureau of Investigations Computer Crimes Unit. “For those of you sitting in the audience saying, ‘Blah, blah, blah is all I hear,’ I am with you. I challenged myself. I basically got in there and started surfing, and I am now working in the computer crimes unit.”