Do you know where your children are? Even if they’re in the living room or their bedrooms, if they’re on the computer, you might want to ask yourself that question again.

Giving parents an idea of how to find out what their children are doing on the Internet and what dangers they may face there was the point of what Detective Sergeant Brent Maguire of the Fairfield Police Department was saying during a presentation called “Myspace, Friendster and Facebook, oh my!”

Maguire gave his presentation at a meeting sponsored by the Coalition Against Drug Abuse (CADA) of Clay County which took place on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Clay County Health Department.

For about two years now, Maguire has used an online persona and uses profiles in the name of this imaginary young person to make “friends” (In the Myspace / Facebook sense) with young people in the towns where he lectures.

“From Flora and Clay County, I’ve got 25 plus friends,” Maguire said, “From Fairfield, my area, I’ve got over 50.”

The point of Maguire’s made up identity is to show both kids and parents how easy it is to get kids to add a stranger as their friend and thus, give them access to a wealth of personal information. “Once I am added as a friend, I get everything,” said Maguire.

This brings up another point that Maguire graphically illustrated with screenshots of local kids’ profiles: having items in a profile that let’s folks know too much. It doesn’t matter if you keep your location a secret if there are a dozen photos of you wearing a “Flora Wolves” jersey.

Maguire had started out with a list of “LOL-speak” acronyms, that people use to convey ideas and thoughts online and in text messages. LOL (Laughing Out Loud), BRB (Be Right Back), KPC (Keeping Parents Clueless) and “What I think is the scariest,” said Maguire, LMIRL (Let’s Meet In Real Life).

While some of the acronyms were a little scary (and others just entertaining), the part of Maguire’s presentation that had the most visible effect on the audience was the fact that his examples were from local kids, all added within the last few days.

“She’s in my sons class,” one audience member said aloud after seeing one girl’s profile.

“She’s going into seventh grade,” said another after seeing the profile of a supposedly-15-year-old Myspacer.

Maguire’s presentation was not just from the perspective of a police officer though. He also is a parent and he and his wife have three kids, all under the age of 18, living under their roof. Maguire talked about tracking software he had installed on his home computer, which also sends him updates on his cellphone about who is doing what and when.

Maguire said he uses the software as a deterrent and tells his kids that it’s there and occasionally asks them what they were doing at a particular time. “I’m not interested in catching them,” said Maguire, “I’m interested in preventing things.”

Maguire also encouraged parents to use Google or another search engine to look their kids up. “It’s not just information, it’s pictures and other imagery,” he said.

Maguire tried to explain that getting kids to think about what they put on the Internet was not just about protecting them from predators, but also protecting them from their own youthful indiscretions. He showed profiles of kids that had pictures of them drinking, using marijuana, or Myspace profiles with pot-motifs. “Once they put something on the Internet, it’s their forever,” said Maguire.

Through everything, Maguire emphasized parental diligence as the best way to protect Internet-bound youths.

“If we stay away,” said Maguire, “ We’re not going to help anything.”