GREENSBORO, N.C. — Every parent needs to pay close attention to the recent case in Davidson County, where a 15-year-old girl was lured by a 28-year-old man she met online. The girl was found safely in Pennsylvania, but FBI agents say cases like this become more complicated due to technology.
"The platforms and the encryption ability to disguise due to VPNs are increasing and make it difficult to recover a juvenile," said Phillip Spainhour, FBI, Charlotte Division.
If your kid has a smartphone or tablet and works on the computer, the FBI is using this case as a warning.
WHAT IS A VPN?
A VPN, Virtual Private Network, is an app or program you can use. Think of it as the server in the middle. In order for data to travel between your computer and another server, like a website, app, or the cloud, it has to pass through the VPN first, making your digital footprint harder to follow.
You would want to use a VPN if you were using your laptop at a coffee shop--- looking at your bank account-- the VPN makes it so that no one could invade your privacy online and get your info.
HOW COULD MY KID BE USING A VPN TO KEEP THINGS HIDDEN FROM ME?
While the VPN is supposed to be used for keeping your wifi connection safe and private, a kid could put a VPN on their phone or computer and it would remove the device from any restrictions or parental controls, allowing them to use apps or talk to someone and keep it a secret.
FINDING OUT IF A VPN IS BEING USED
What do you do as a parent? Kent Meeker from Tech Scout says you find out if there is a VPN in use in your house. To do this, he says you'll need to try this when everyone is at home and using their devices. You may want to try this several times at different times of day or night.
The website you can use to sniff out a VPN:
You need to be in your house, using a web browser. When you plug in the address above, it will immediately tell you if a VPN is being used on your network.
What you want to see when you type in the website is this:
If you don't see this, someone has some explaining to do.