Tanner, who has presented the workshop to his own staff, as well as other schools within the Davis School District, said the information shared with parents is "disturbing," but necessary.

"My teachers have said they were grateful to have heard the information, but they were bothered by some of the content," Tanner said.

Tanner, along with district network engineers Steve DeLand and Chad Mikkelsen, walked parents through Internet sites that are popular with young people, and showed parents how sexual predators use the sites to lure young people into meeting them in person.

"The No. 1 danger for students is their ignorance of who's out there," DeLand said.

According to DeLand, predators surf sites, such as the popular social-networking site MySpace. After establishing a nonthreatening relationship with the student, they begin learning more about the student, and eventually request a meeting.

"There are several factors predators look for. They will ask if the student has a computer in their room, or what hours their parents work," DeLand warned. "They'll send naked photos of themselves, and request the same of the student.

"After they've convinced the student to do something they know is wrong, such as look at the photos, the predator then uses guilt, blackmail or threats against the child to get them to continue the relationship."

DeLand also discussed cyber-bullying, which occurs when students post bad things about other students online.

Another area DeLand said they're seeing an increase in activity is what is called "pocket porn."

"Students now have the ability to e-mail, text and download pictures on their phones. They have little or no parental supervision when it comes to their phones, and it's not uncommon for students to take provocative photos of themselves and others, then e-mail them to friends," DeLand said.

Some of the numbers regarding Internet predators were disturbing to the parents in the audience.

According to DeLand, it's estimated that there are more than 50,000 predators online, and the average predator offends more than 300 times before being caught.

Mikkelsen followed the principal's presentation with some information about how parents can help protect their children from Internet hazards.

"Of course, parental involvement is the No. 1 factor in keeping kids safe. Put the computer in a central location. Be aware of your student's online activity, including blogs and MySpace," said Mikkelsen.

He also recommends checking on kids' phones and browsing their photo gallery for inappropriate pictures.

Mikkelsen informed parents of various Web sites and programs available to parents to track their children's activity, including one program that "barks" when a Web site comes up that includes certain words such as sex or drugs.

"Parents can talk to their student's principal, or contact us at the district, and we'll direct them to the programs and sites they can use," Mikkelsen said.

DeLand and Mikkelsen said they have the ability to track the Internet use of any student who uses a school computer in their district, and spend a significant amount of time cruising Internet sites looking for their students.

Disturbingly, the workshop included a presentation of dozens of young people in the district who had posted provocative photos, or photos of them doing drugs, on the Internet.

"The scary thing is, once it's out there, it never goes away. Even if the student takes their site down, someone, somewhere, has it on their hard drive," Mikkelsen said.

tdeans@sltrib.com